Michael Infantine, Staff Writer


God is calling.  How will you answer?

This is the motto of Notre Dame Vision.  Operated through the Institute for Church Life, Notre Dame Vision is a summer program that offers four week-long conferences for high school students.  Over 300 students from around the country and the world come to Notre Dame’s campus to explore the shape of their own vocational call.  Through a series of keynote talks, in-depth small group discussions, original musicals reimagining some of Jesus’ parables, prayer and liturgy, the Notre Dame Vision participants explore what it really means to be a disciple of Christ.

As program director Leonard DeLorenzo explains, “Vision seeks to cooperate with the Church’s mission to evangelize and re-evangelize young people, to help them know who God is and how God loves them and to give them the permission, the freedom and the wherewithal to make their own lives a proclamation of the Good News.”  This mission is best carried out by a recognition that we are all called to serve according to our gifts.  This summer, I had the privilege of serving with 70 other Notre Dame students, who assumed roles as music mentors leading the group in song and as small group mentors facilitating conversation among the high school students.

It is safe to say that going into Notre Dame Vision, I had no idea what I was getting myself into.  Before any participants arrived on campus, we spent 9 months in preparation for our work in the summer.  This included a three-credit theology class in the spring semester, a number of pastoral skills workshops and several retreats, all designed for our own personal formation.

Once all of the months of preparation and anticipation were finally behind us and the first group of high school students arrived on campus, we hit the ground running.  Journeying with them for a week was incredible in that we saw how they took advantage of the opportunities to share some of their most personal stories and deepest questions.  As DeLorenzo said, ministry must “enter into the realities, the messiness, the complexities, the scars and the beauty of real people’s lives, customs and communities, and proclaim the Good News in, with and through these things.”  It was through these very real shared experiences that the Vision participants came to a clearer vision of what vocation and discipleship—a personal response to God’s call for them—would look like in their own lives.

Though serving as a Mentor-in-Faith was a beautiful gift, it was not always easy.  It was tough and awkward at times.  High school students can be unresponsive and apathetic.  Even in the struggle, though, it was always a blessing.  I knew, at least conceptually, that I would be called to give of myself, but I had no idea that I would also receive so much.

“If there were a secret to Notre Dame Vision, it would probably be this,” said DeLorenzo.  “We spend all of our time working on and thinking about how we can serve the high school students, but the surprise at the end is that this wasn’t just about the high school students.  This was about [the mentors] too.  This was about their faith; about who they are becoming; about how they are going to continue to use their gifts to change the world.”  To be allowed not only into the lives and stories (messiness and all) of these high school students, but to be facilitating their experience—navigating together with them these questions of vocation, discernment and discipleship—was incredibly rewarding and an extraordinary blessing.

After spending my summer with Notre Dame Vision, I have seen very clearly the fruits of Christ-oriented, well-guided vocational discernment.  Throughout the year, I will continue to explore this theme of vocational discipleship through a series of articles highlighting individuals in the Notre Dame community who have responded to God’s call to holiness in their own lives.

God is calling.  How will you answer?

Michael Infantine is a Sophomore PLS major.  If you are the slightest bit interested in maybe being a mentor for ND Vision in the future, he thinks you are a wonderful person and wholeheartedly encourages you to email him at minfanti@nd.edu to learn more.