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October 21, 2025
The Diocesan Vocations Team hosted a short pilgrimage during the Marian Jubilee to bring together men from across the diocese who are open to a possible calling to the diocesan priesthood on Saturday 11 October 2025.
The event began with a candlelit Mass and Adoration at the 12th-century Anglican church in Framingham Earl.
There, Fr Peter Wygnanski preached about Mary’s role in perfecting a masculine capacity to love: in the pattern of family life, a lived experience of Mary’s spiritual motherhood helps a man by transforming his affections, uniting them with Christ’s own, and enabling him to grow more fully into a spiritual son and brother as the essential basis for any — God willing — spiritual fatherhood.
This time of prayer was followed by an informal social evening hosted by the Ignite Team in Poringland. The following morning began with Morning Prayer among the ruins of Binham Priory, before participants walked to the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham to join Bishop Peter in celebrating the Jubilee of Marian Spirituality. After the celebration, Bishop Peter took the opportunity to commission the Ignite Team for their work across the diocese at the Slipper Chapel.
Fr Peter, the Assistant Diocesan Vocations Director leading the event, said:
“The friendship of other men who are seriously asking what God’s call is for their lives is a crucial source of support and encouragement for those generously discerning a vocation to the priesthood. Events like this, offering an experience of God both through the sacraments and Christian fraternity, are among the most effective ways we have to promote vocations to the priesthood in East Anglia. We continue to pray for those men who are at the first stages of answering that call.”
