National Vocation Awareness Week is Nov. 6 – 12. According to the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops.org, the week “is an annual week-long celebration of the Catholic Church in the United States dedicated to promoting vocations to the priesthood, diaconate and consecrated life through prayer and education, and to renew our prayers and support for those who are considering one of these particular vocations.” (United States Catholic Conference of Bishops.org)
One person considering a vocation as a member of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ is Newman adjunct instructor Kristen Forgotch. Last year during Lent, Forgotch felt the call to become a sister. Forgotch has been a part of the Catholic church since birth.
“Instead of giving something up for Lent, I felt God calling me to go to an extra mass on the weekend,” she said.
At the time, she was teaching on a Navajo reservation in New Mexico which was near a group of ASC. She went to the mass and through that experience, she said, she felt a tug from God to join the sisterhood. The tug became so strong that “God was shouting at me. I couldn’t ignore His call,” she said.
Since then, Forgotch has gone through the necessary steps to join the ASC. She said, “I met with an Adorer and learned what it means to be a sister, I went through a formal interview process, and wrote a letter to the leadership.”
Forgotch was sent to Wichita by the ASC and began teaching a class, Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults, at Newman in the fall of 2016. Her full-time job now is teaching fourth graders at Holy Spirit Catholic School in Goddard, Kan.
While being considered for the ASC, Forgotch is living with Director of Mission Effectiveness Charlotte Rohrbach, ASC, along with a few other sisters. “I met her in the spring of 2015 for the first time,” said Rohrbach. “Once she’d been accepted into candidacy, she moved here, in early June of 2016, and now lives with us.”
Candidacy is a process that can last up to two years. The sisters live together and come up with a set of goals to operate with. “She’s very helpful,” said Rorhbach. “I think she’s doing great. There are things we do to help each other out. We enjoy time together and we listen to one another.”
During her time in Kansas, Forgotch will continue to work with the sisters and her vocational director until she moves on to the next step of her process, which is to move into a novitiate in Illinois.
