Fr. Corey D. Bruns, vocations director for the Diocese of Owensboro, takes a selfie on Nov. 5, 2025 with the students of St. Joseph Interparochial School in Bowling Green. Fr. Bruns celebrated Mass and visited with the school that day as a part of celebrating National Vocation Awareness Week. COURTESY OF FR. COREY D. BRUNS

BY FR. COREY D. BRUNS, OFFICE OF VOCATIONS

As director of vocations I spend the majority of my time each week driving around the diocese to visit, pray, and share about vocations with our people. National Vocation Awareness Week was no different, and my odometer just kept on rolling.

In 1976, the U.S. bishops began to celebrate National Vocation Awareness Week (NVAW) as an intentional time to draw our attention to the courageous and radical witness of the love of God and service to neighbor that vocations to the priesthood, religious life, and diaconate entail.

Our local celebrations in the Diocese of Owensboro began digitally this year with a series of 30-60 second interviews with “Fr. Mic” (a mini microphone) as some of our seminarians and consecrated religious shared favorite parts of their vocation and the invitation to pray and celebrate NVAW with them.

Sunday brought me to Gasper River Catholic Youth Camp & Retreat Center for a board meeting where we spoke of some upcoming vocation initiatives including next year’s new “Quo Vadis” camp for high school boys. (Mark your calendars for June 14-17 for a camp experience unlike any other!)

Monday brought me to the K-3 campus of Owensboro Catholic Schools to speak with some of the third graders about our universal vocation to become saints, and fielding normal classroom questions like “Have you heard of Saint ‘so-and-so’ before?”

On Nov. 6, 2025, college students participate in a holy hour for National Vocation Awareness Week in the St. Thomas Aquinas Chapel at Western Kentucky University. COURTESY OF FR. COREY D. BRUNS

Tuesday afternoon brought me to the Passionist monastery in Whitesville for some quick video interviews with the nuns, before heading back to gather with about 60 folks at Sts. Joseph & Paul for our weekly Vocation Tuesday. (Consisting of a holy hour and confessions at 6:30 p.m. and Mass at 7:30 p.m.) Several parishes around the diocese joined us in solidarity throughout the week with holy hours as we prayed for an increase in vocations.

On Wednesday morning I returned south to celebrate and preach about loving God through the gift of our lives at the weekly school Mass at St. Joseph Interparochial School in Bowling Green. Afterwards, the middle school students joined me in the Mary courtyard for a conversation about our particular vocations over ice cream.

Thursday morning brought me to Owensboro Catholic High School to celebrate Mass as I encouraged the students to be courageous in asking and listening to where God was calling them to make sacrifices in their lives. That afternoon, I hit the road to Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green to join the Newman Center students for their Night of Worship. We shared a meal and spoke about digging into discernment before joining chaplain Fr. Jason McClure in praying a holy hour and celebrating the Sacrament of Reconciliation with the students.

We closed out the week as I made my fall visit to our seminarians at Saint Meinrad Seminary & School of Theology for evaluations, fraternity time, and more filming for vocations promotional materials with them.

Watch the short videos that were filmed this week, and stay up-to-date with weekly happenings in the Office of Vocations, by following @OwensboroVocations on Instagram and Facebook.

At the end of National Vocation Awareness Week (Nov. 2-8, 2025), vocations director Fr. Corey D. Bruns visits with the Diocese of Owensboro’s three seminarians currently studying at Saint Meinrad Seminary in southern Indiana. (Left to right) Hunter Dickens, Tommy Rhodes, Wes Wheatley, Fr. Bruns. COURTESY OF FR. COREY D. BRUNS

Originally printed in the December 2025 issue of The Western Kentucky Catholic.