Dolgellau Carmelites have always tended to rely on word of mouth, personal introductions and a good old fashioned letter or phone call when women have wanted to test their vocation. However this year they are breaking with tradition and launching a series of ‘Come and See’ weekends, to enable single women who feel they might have a vocation to get a taste of the sisters’ life of prayer.

A new feature documentary about the monks of Mount St Bernard Abbey, called “Outside the City”, is being premiered on November 9th at Cinecity Brighton Film Festival. This artistic film documents the lives and deaths of the monks living behind the walls of this closed monastic community in Leicestershire, as they transition from dairy farming to brewing the UK’s first Trappist beer, the world famous Tynt Meadow.

The premiere of the film will be an afternoon screening at 2pm at the Depot Cinema in Lewes. The bar will be serving Tynt Meadow and there will be a chance to discuss the film after the screening with filmmaker Nick Hamer. For more details and to book your ticket please click here.

In this fast-paced world, rife with distractions, there’s an opportunity for religious young people to “establish a lasting spiritual foundation” for their lives. An eight-week monastic internship is available to 18 to 25-year-olds at Quarr Abbey, a Catholic Benedictine Monastery on the Isle of Wight.

Josh Caminiti, a 23-year-old from Canada, who is about to start a new job as a business consultant in London, took part in the programme and shares his experience with the BBC in this video.

Pope Francis has named six superiors of women’s religious orders, a consecrated laywoman and the superior of the De La Salle Christian Brothers to be full members of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

Previously, the members had all been men: cardinals, a few bishops and several priests who were superiors of large religious orders of men.

To read the full article from Crux, please click here.

The European Vocations Service, (EVS), part of the Conference of Bishops of Europe, met in Rome from the 4^th – 7^th June. We discussed how best to implement the outcomes of the recent synod on Youth, Faith and Vocational Discernment, and were privileged to meet Pope Francis on the penultimate day.

Pope Francis welcomed us all warmly and gave us his prepared speech… and proceeded to address us with an impromptu message. Pope Francis believes that the Holy Spirit still calls people to lives of special consecration, and we should courageously cast out the nets, but always in the context of the wider Christian calling. You can read the full message (both impromptu and prepared) here.