Free live entertainment from top Catholic bands, free internet access, and gourmet coffee that flowed all day and late into the night! But that was not all that flowed at this coffee house, many graces flowed as well!  Confession and Eucharistic Adoration will be attended by thousands!  Not your typical coffee house you say?  The www.vocation.com  coffee house at World Youth Day in Cologne, Germany was unique to say the least!

Welcoming over 16,000 World Youth Day pilgrims through its doors, the vocational themed Coffee House brought all the features of the vocation discernment website to life. Thomas Jacob, a youth minister from India, had been searching for the Coffee House since first arriving in Germany.  I use the resources of vocation.com with my youth in India.  I wanted to meet the people of vocation.com in person and say thank you for the help they give me.

Top Catholic bands played to full crowds each night as youth were entertained with music from Cardiac Move, Raindown, Fresh, and Starfoam.  Daniel diSilva, lead singer of the band Crispin and emcee of the event entertained the crowd with his own Catholic music and interviewed priests and consecrated men and women who have answered Gods call to follow Him. 

Priests, religious, and youth ministers from dioceses across the world visited the Coffee House to talk with the youth gathered there. Sr. Therese-Benedicte from    Vichy, France found the Coffee House to be an unexpected gift at World Youth Day. I have so enjoyed being here and visiting with the youth in this setting. They are having a great time with the music and yet are very focused on Christ.  They keep the chapel very full and the priests busy in confession.  It is very good.

Coffee House guest speakers included among many others:  Fr. Edward Burns, Executive Director Secretariat for Priestly Formation and Vocations for The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops; Bishop Köning of Padabon; Bishop Everad de Jong from Holland and  Fr. Francis Bonnici from the Vaticans Congregation for Catholic Education.

The internet cafe was a favorite feature as youth lined up to send quick message home. However, the most popular location was the chapel, where Adoration for Vocations was held.  Always filled to capacity, the chapel often had a waiting line to enter and hundreds of youth availed themselves of the sacrament of confession. Eucharistic Benediction closed the Coffee House each night with youth overflowing the main hall and spilling down the stairs and into the foyer; the perfect ending to each days events.

www.vocation.com  is an interactive website that was launched in March 2002 in order to help young people hear and respond to Gods will in their lives.  In just 3 years, over one- million visitors from 60 countries and six continents have logged onto the website which is translated in English, Spanish, French, Italian, and German and soon Portuguese.   www.vocation.com  is a service of the Legionaries of Christ and Regnum Christ in collaboration with the vocation directors of several dioceses, promoting vocations to all walks of consecrated life and the priesthood, both in dioceses and in religious congregations.