Give Your Life Totally to God in this Catholic Vocation

For Families

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Is Jesus calling you to leave all behind and follow Him in this Catholic vocation? The Catholic Corps could be for you - it's a Catholic vocation of lay celibate missionaries. If you feel drawn to dedicate your life totally to God through prayer and mission, we invite you to take a closer look.

The Catholic Corps are men and women who have consecrated their entire lives to God—through private vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience—and to the AFC’s mission of supporting families in the Faith. It is a life of purpose, joy, sacrifice, and love for God and families. Maybe God is calling you to join us in this Catholic vocation of lay missionaries.

Although we were founded in 1986, due to our unique nature of being at the service of a Lay Apostolate, we fall under "new forms of Consecrated Life". Pope Saint John II speaks about "These new forms of consecrated life...which the total gift of self to the Lord, the ideal of the apostolic community and the founding charisms continue to exert, even on the present generation" in Vita Consecrata, paragraph 12.

Or contact us to speak with someone

about the Catholic Corps!
Or call us at:  1-800-773-2645

What Our Life Is Like

Catholic Corps Vocation

1

Prayer & Sacramental Life

Our life is centered on the Eucharist, the Holy Family, and fidelity to the Catholic Church and her Magisterium. Daily life includes Mass, communal Rosary and morning prayer from Liturgy of the Hours, a personal Eucharistic holy hour, the Divine Mercy Chaplet, and a night visit to the Eucharist. Other spiritual practices include: regular confession, formation, day of recollection, and annual silent retreat.

2

Mission for Families

We believe families are important. As a membership branch of the AFC, we support this ministry to families through our prayers and various roles of service.

3

Community Environment

Our men's community and women's community live in separate family style homes. Committed to the continual growth in holiness of each member, we support, encourage, and care for one another in a life of shared prayer, mission, formation, recreation, meals, gatherings, and retreats.

Learn more about our mission.

Seeking Holiness in this Catholic Vocation

through the AFC’s Charism & Spirituality

Our Unique Charism

A • F • C
Catholic Corps on stage with Holy Family image

Apostolate:

As a spiritual family, we work together...

for Family:

...to support families in the Catholic Faith...

Consecration:

...so that, with the help of the Holy Family, each person can fully live their baptismal consecration and achieve the holiness God desires.

This charism shapes our entire ministry and is expressed through our spirituality.

Our Balanced Spirituality

Consecration
Catholic Corps on stage with signs

Holiness leads to happiness, the true happiness for which we were created: union with God. As AFC Catholic Corps Members, we seek to grow in holiness by living a spirituality of Family Consecration.

Family Consecration is a deliberate choice to live our baptismal promises by entrusting our families to the Holy Family. In this way, we strive to follow Jesus Christ more fully with the help and protection of Mary and St. Joseph.

The Seven Keys for God-Centered Family Living guide us on this journey to eternal happiness with God in Heaven: prayer life, sacramental life, learning the Faith, living the virtues, serving others, sharing the Faith, sanctifying daily duties.

As part of the AFC spiritual family, we are spiritually united with Disciple Members around the world, who are living this balanced spirituality in the middle of daily family life. This is the beauty of our Catholic vocation as lay missionaries.

Meet the Catholic Corps

Men's & Women's Communities

The Catholic Corps community is our spiritual family where we experience the warmth of a home and a family spirit. It is characterized by joy, mutual trust, respect and a sense of belonging.

We support, encourage, and care for one another in a life of shared prayer, mission, formation, recreation, meals, gatherings, and retreats. Perhaps God is calling you to walk with us in this Catholic vocation as a lay missionary.

 

Catholic Corps Women


The Catholic Corps women's family missionary community at Catholic Familyland
Jomel Brondial

Jomel Brondial

Hometown: Manila, Philippines
Life Commitment: 2001
Feast Day: Jan. 7, Feast of the Epiphany

I felt attracted to the AFC’s Catholic Corps vocation because of its prayer life which is Eucharistic and Marian, and its mission of evangelizing families in the truths of the Catholic faith. I saw how relevant and crucial this mission was since the family is where the Faith begins and grows, and so it is vital for the salvation of souls. After college graduation from the University of the Philippines (with a degree in Statistics) and then working for a short time in a business company, I felt restless and was searching for a deeper meaning and overall direction in life. It was then that Our Lord through Our Lady drew me back to the Church (through the prayers of my mother), as I was “on and off” in my practice of Faith, then led me to know the Apostolate through its celibate community when its mission just started in the Philippines. I felt very much the call of the Lord to give myself completely to Him – that I would give my heart to Him alone and dedicate my whole life to Him – to fulfill His call to holiness to the fullest. The lay character of the Catholic Corps vocation was new and unique which I identified with, and through which I could use my God-given talents to build up His Kingdom.

Tricia Hauber

Tricia Hauber

Hometown: Kennewick, WA
Life Commitment: 1994
Feast Day: Dec. 8, Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception

After attending a retreat at the AFC in Wisconsin in 1987, I felt the Lord stirring my heart to something more. I was very much drawn to the AFC, particularly the prayer life and its support of the family especially through its emphasis on the Holy Eucharist and its Marian spirituality and consecration to the Holy Family. So I decided to come back and discern and eventually, I made a life commitment. Through the years of this faith journey, I’ve grown in my communion with the Lord and have developed deep spiritual friendships, not only with my sisters in community, but also with many of the beautiful families who come to our events. I’m so grateful to be a part of this ministry to give glory to God and save souls.

Lucy

Lucy Lu Mai

Hometown: Yangon, Myanmar
Life Commitment: 2014
Feast Day: Feb. 11, Our Lady of Lourdes

I was once secular and lukewarm. I heard a call in 1999 when I was 24. I had to detach everything to follow Him and leave my own town, Myitkyina. I cried but I believe that the Holy Family is leading me to where I am now. I am content what I am. After so many weak falls I was able to get up again through the grace of God. I am happy for this life of consecration to the Holy Family. I am grateful to God in my entire life for what He has done for me, my vocation and formation and spiritual life and all my needs met in the Catholic Corps way of life. I decided that I will do whatever He wants me to do. I am all His and all I have is His through Mary in union with St. Joseph. Amen.

Renee

Renee Scheu

Hometown: Ballwin, MO
Life Commitment: 2013
Feast Day: Sept. 8, Feast of the Birth of the Virgin Mary

I was a high school summer Service Corps volunteer at the AFC when I heard the call to become a member of the Catholic Corps. I wanted to serve families in this wonderful mission of saving souls. Jesus spoke to me one Wednesday night during Adoration saying He wanted me for Himself. How could I not respond to His call?

Mary

Mary Sue

Hometown: Muncie, IN
Life Commitment: 2000
Feast Day: Dec. 8, Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception

During my years of teaching special education, I experienced the sorrow of seeing children and families hurt from neglect, substance abuse and other wounds and felt powerless to make it better. I began to sense God calling me to something more and looked into mission work. What first drew me to the Catholic Corps vocation was the AFC's mission of reaching the whole family with the truths of the faith and drawing them into prayer and the Sacraments, opening the door to healing and family unity. I was also attracted to the community life and being able to live and work with others who shared my faith and values. Then, the prayer life really made an impact on me. The daily adoration and Scripture reading, most especially, nourished my soul so much and deepened my relationship with Christ. I am grateful to God for all the blessings and opportunities for growth that I have received in this vocation.

Carolyn

Carolyn Stegmann

Hometown: House Springs, MO
Life Commitment: 1993
Feast Day: March 25, Feast of the Annunciation

I saw the breakdown of family life and the moral free fall in our country and knew that because the family is the basic cell of society, so goes the family so goes society. If you renew the family, you renew the world and the Church. After attending an AFC Youth Retreat, I discovered that my youth was a treasure and a gift that God was asking me to give back to Him. It was with great joy that I offered this treasure back to Him, and in so doing, I eventually gave up marriage and family life so that other families could know and learn what authentic Catholic family life should be like.

Anna

Anna Thompson

Hometown: Sullivan, IN
Life Commitment: 2009
Feast Day: Nov. 9, Presentation of Mary

As I was finishing my college career, I began to long for a deeper understanding of who I was, what my purpose in life was and who I was meant to journey through life with. After graduation I decided to take some time out of life to volunteer within the Church and hopefully spend more time in prayer in order to discern these things. I ended up trying out the Catholic Corps way of life. Their life was steeped in the Sacraments with daily Mass and frequent opportunities for Confession, daily Eucharistic prayer, formation in the Truths of the Faith, and the community was alive with a desire for holiness. The grace of God working through these elements began to fulfill my deepest longings and encouraged in me a desire to live a life of consecration to God for the salvation of souls. As I continue to live this way of life, I can gratefully say that I have received greater understanding of who I am in Him, a means to live out His purpose for me and a community that supports and encourages me to live a life of holiness in Him.

Catherine

Catherine Wall

Hometown: Molalla, OR
Life Commitment: 2000
Feast Day: Sept. 8, Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

I felt a call to give myself completely to God since childhood. I thought it was as a cloistered nun. However, after visiting two cloistered orders I felt God was not calling me to either one. Providentially, after receiving a brochure from the Apostolate for Family Consecration in the mail and making a look-see visit with the women’s Catholic Corps community, I knew I was home, and the Apostolate’s mission to save the world and the Church through the family, became my mission.

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Elsie Yator

Hometown: Agusan del Sur, Philippines
Life Commitment: 2006

“Service” and “Come, follow me” those are the words that God had put in my heart since I was in grade school. I have no clue as to what it meant. I thought, getting involved in various parish ministries was enough to respond to that call. I was determined to get married but again, it’s just me and my plan until I heard once again the word of God, “Come follow me” but this time with added words, with all your heart and with all your life. It was the year 1995 that the work and mission of the Apostolate for Family Consecration (AFC) was introduced to me. I got attracted to their work and mission of serving families through the dual dimension of consecration and spirituality of St. Pope John Paul II which is Eucharistic, Marian and Family Centered. As I witnessed first hand the breakdown of families, I thought to myself, this is it! Family Consecration! I want to make a difference in the lives of every family and I want to give my all in all. Without hesitation, I joined the AFC October 13, 1995, the Day the Miracle of the sun happened at Fatima, Portugal.

Catholic Corps Men


The Catholic Corps men's family missionary community on vacation together
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Greg Becker

Hometown: Lynbrook, NY
Life Commitment: 2002
Feast Day: Sept. 14, Triumph of the Cross

When I was young I never felt a call or even considered a call to serve God. It wasn’t even on my radar. In my mid twenties, after college and in the midst of building a business career, God shocked me by calling me to Himself in an unusual and unmistakable way. I wasn’t happy. I had other plans for my happiness! But fortunately I was given the grace to keep an open mind and open heart. Through a series of experiences—one of which was a priest wryly calling me a “jerk” in confession because I didn’t pray to Mary—I accepted God’s call and began to understand the beautiful role of Our Lady in our lives and in the life of the Church. From that point on my spiritual life really began to take off. When I encountered a member of the AFC’s Catholic Corps community at a conference and learned that they have a “deep devotion to Our Lady”, I knew I had to check it out. What I found was an amazing answer to prayer–a powerful mission to serve families! God had already inspired my heart and mind to see the impact my life could have if it was put at the service of supporting families to learn and live the Faith and that’s exactly what the AFC was all about! I was also looking for the support and structure of a community of like-minded men to help me grow in holiness and service of God – and that’s exactly what the Catholic Corps is all about! It was a perfect fit. I came to a Discernment Retreat a few months later, then joined the Catholic Corps shortly after that, and have never looked back! God is full of surprises.

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Tim Boudreaux

Hometown: Thibodaux, LA
Life Commitment: 1994
Feast Day: June 29, Feast of Sts. Peter & Paul

 “In you, O Lord, I have found my peace.” Giving up more on life in my restless youth, I decided to take another look at my Catholic Faith since I always felt that pull to move towards it or guilt for not. I believe everyone seeks out more peace, love, and friendship in this restless world, where bonding with something meaningful or with people, and even with God, is never a given. When asking myself what or why God wanted me to follow Him, I discovered that peace, His peace, which started to slowly take the place of my misery! Well love and friendship came along in God’s right moments, but, the biggest continual call for me was to keep handing over my restlessness to Him for His healing and in most cases, not so easy! And so with my personal blindness slowly (at times painfully) lifting I see more of God’s call for me, bringing with it, more personal acceptance of myself and of God, as His merciful love is slowly being revealed.

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Greg Caspers

Hometown: St. Paul, MN
Life Commitment: 1993
Feast Day: March 25, Solemnity of the Annunciation

In 1984 I received a mailing from the AFC containing a cassette tape with a discussion between Mr. Coniker and Fr. John Hardin. They explained that the US is once again missionary territory that needs evangelizing and that the renewal of the family as God designed it is crucial for a healthy church and society. That made me interested in the work and I also heard that they was a community of consecrated celibates starting in the AFC and I was drawn to the fact that I live full time for this mission and live in a community devoted to prayer and work toward it. I also was attracted to its Marian devotion and that the AFC is solidly Catholic and tries to avoid extremes.

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Tim Croes

Hometown: New Richmond, WI
Life Commitment: 1993
Feast Day: March 25, Solemnity of the Annunciation

What attracted me? My parents were dairy farmers, and I am number 6 of 8 children- 4 boys and 4 girls. As a young boy, I sensed a call to be a priest. Growing up, I really didn’t know my faith, and a lot of what the Church taught was being called into question. After experiencing the sudden accidental death of an older brother when I was 19 years of age, I went through a reversion, an awakening of my Faith. As I began to learn and grow in my faith through the ‘Peace of Heart Forums’ offered by the Apostolate for Family Consecration, I began to hear God’s invitational call to sell my farm and "Come, Follow Me". His call was real and gentle, yet persistent. I didn’t know if He was calling me to priesthood, religious life or what. After attending a retreat at the AFC, I was invited to test a vocation with the Catholic Corps. I was attracted to the mission of the AFC, which is focused on rebuilding family life spiritually, going after the root problem of all the unhappiness and problems in our world, which is sin. In the AFC, we focus on overcoming evil with good, using modern means to teach the Truth, and consecrate ourselves to Jesus through Mary in union with St. Joseph, becoming in Mary’s hands effective instruments to crush Satan's head. We are all broken and in need of a Savior - Jesus. I am privileged to help families be healed and be set free to live in the freedom of the children of God as they journey forth on their pilgrimage of faith.

Rory

Rory Freiermuth

Hometown: St. Paul, MN
Life Commitment: 2000
Feast Day: Dec. 8, Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception

I was first exposed to the Apostolate and the Catholic Corps at one of the AFC’s Youth Retreats, and I was very inspired by the solid Catholicism, rich prayer and sacramental life, and importance that was given to Our Lady’s message at Fatima. I was also attracted by the healthy emphasis on truth and holiness as the primary means to overcome the increasing evil in our world. Although I had an established career in the field of Fisheries Biology, Our Lord’s invitation to become a “fisher of men'' resonated deeply within me. I have never regretted answering God’s personal call, and I am forever grateful for the many opportunities available in this vocation to console the Hearts of Jesus and Mary while laboring to sanctify families, repair for sin, and win grace for straying souls.

Anthony

Anthony Giammarino

Hometown: Deer Park, NY
Life Commitment: 2004
Feast Day: June 13, Corpus Christi Sunday & St. Anthony of Padua

When the Good Lord put in my heart a vocation to serve Him with an undivided heart, I was particularly attracted to the AFC's Catholic Corps in 3 ways:
1-The Family-Centered focus, The basic cell of society;
2-The Unwavering obedience to the Catholic Church's Magisterium, which when I entered was visibly being undermined;
3-And Lastly-The Person of Pope John Paul II, whose spirituality the AFC has adopted as their own.
These 3 keys have continued to guide me in my vocational walk as a member of the Catholic Corps.

Roch

Roch Gillmore

Hometown: Warner Robins, GA
Life Commitment: 2021
Feast Day: March 19, Solemnity of St. Joseph

I was born a cradle Catholic as the 5th of 12 kids. I began to embrace my relationship with God in my mid-teens, but more so in my later teens after having pneumonia 5 times and being bedridden off and on for 6 months with sinus infections and bronchitis. I also went on a couple powerful retreats between sicknesses. My brother invited me to join the men's lay celibate consecrated community that he was part of at the time (the "Catholic Corps"). I hesitated but once I tried it out, I knew it was an answer to the prayer I'd been praying for a "group of guys that would help me grow in holiness". At that point (November, 2011), God had given me a love for Him in the Eucharist, so daily adoration and Mass were very attractive. My health continued to improve which served as a sign that I could continue in this vocation. I'm so thankful to God that I have the privilege to be part of this community and this ministry. It's great to have found this wonderful Catholic vocation in the church!

Discernment Process

Catholic Corps Vocation

If you think God might be calling you to the Catholic Corps Vocation, or if you’d like to learn more about our way of life, here’s what you can do next.

  • Contact us.

    Click the button below and fill out the form. One of our community coordinators will get in touch with you by email or phone. During our conversation, we’ll ask you to tell us about yourself and your discernment so far. We’ll also answer any questions you might have.

  • Come for a weekend visit.

    A key part of discernment is meeting the community members and experiencing daily life with them. After we get to know you a little over the phone, we can arrange a weekend for you to visit.

  • Come for a “Come & See” visit.

    You can come back for a six-week “Come & See” visit if you are still interested in our way of life after your weekend visit. This longer visit allows you to really get to know the community and participate in our prayer and ministry.

  • Invitation to further discernment.

    If you still feel drawn to this Catholic vocation after your six-week visit, we will invite you to further discernment with our community. Entrance to the community happens annually on the first Saturday of October. During this time, you’ll be invited to discern and make a series of commitments along the path to lifelong consecration as a Catholic Corps Member of the Apostolate for Family Consecration®.

    • Six-month commitment
    • One-year commitment, renewed annually over a period of 6–8 years
    • Lifelong consecration through private vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience to God

Discerning your vocation is an exciting adventure that takes time, trust, and a willingness to listen to God’s call. It’s a blessing to walk with you on this journey, even for a short time.

Is God Calling You

to This Life OF SERVICE?

Contact us to speak with someone

about the Catholic Corps Vocation!

Or call us at:  1-800-773-2645

FAQs

Catholic Corps

What type of work/ministry do Catholic Corps do in their vocation?

Throughout the year, we fulfill many of the AFC’s practical and administrative needs by working in one (or a few) of its departments: facilities management, groundskeeping, accounting, purchasing, liturgy, events, development, and more. We seek to serve joyfully in any area where our gifts are needed.

During AFC events, we take a more up-front role in ministry by leading activities and interacting with the families and individuals who come to each event. Many families share with us how they are being impacted by our mission. It’s a great blessing to hear their stories and spend time with them!

No matter what we are doing, we seek to offer everything to Jesus, through Mary, in union with St. Joseph.

Catholic Corps working in the office, outside, as photographers, and gardening

Catholic Corps in the office, kitchen, and on stage

Catholic Corps praying, cleaning, and in the accounting office

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