AKUA Run/Walk for Vocations, Diocese of Honolulu, Hawaii

The "AKUA Run/Walk for Vocations" series is a creative way to raise awareness and to strengthen the culture of vocations to the ordained ministry and consecrated life in the Diocese of Honolulu, Hawaii. This series will be held in conjunction with the Marathons in the islands of Hawaii, namely Honolulu Marathon, Maui Marathon, Kauai Marathon, Kona Marathon, etc. Participants may be priests, sisters, seminarians and lay people who pledge to pray and make an extra mile for vocations.

Rationale

Priests and those in the consecrated life, like any person, share interests — interests such as running or playing sports. Training is a time to reflect and to pray. It’s important that we include prayer into our undertakings. Runners/walkers know that in the course of their respective races they'll experience great challenges. But the sense of accomplishment and mission to overcome these challenges makes it worthwhile to them. Each runner/walker will say "I do not run aimlessly" (1 Corinthians 9:26).

Bishop Larry Silva of Honolulu has supported these initiatives in line with the Catholic Church celebration of the Jubilee Year of St. Paul. This will be a positive statement of the Diocesan Vocations Office to bring awareness to people that we as a Catholic community are determined to make a difference, and we as a Church are expressing a need for vocations.

Whether one chooses to run the entire marathon course of 26.2 miles, to run a shorter course, or to walk, discipline is required to prepare and complete the course. The discipline of proper training and finishing each marathon (according to the means and distance for which you have registered), will teach Catholic Youth and other participants that they can have endurance throughout their lives and they can accomplish great things. At each marathon, they offer their sacrifice to run/walk “extra miles” for vocations. The mission is always to finish the race for which one has registered. As St. Paul says in 2 Timothy 4:7, "I have finished the race; I have kept the faith."