Accessible via the Vocations Boston YouTube channel and Facebook page, Scivias consists of 27 episodes broken up into three parts.
Zimmerman explained that the first part is about “achieving a greater awareness and freedom in oneself. Because often times we desire to do God’s will, but there’s things that hold us back. We have our own desires, our own ideas. We’re not fully ready to hear God’s voice and to respond to it. So, this is about coming to know: What is within my heart? What are the desires there? What are the fears that are there? And how can I turn those over to the Lord, trusting him that He’s going to fulfill those desires in the deepest way, whatever he’s calling me to?”
The second part, Zimmerman said, “is learning about how my life is a gift meant to be given, and I do that through my vocation. And then the third part, the last nine episodes, speak more about the vocation to the priesthood, diocesan priesthood more specifically. And most specifically there’s an episode just about Boston as well. At least that’s how I discerned it. So that’s kind of the overall flow of how the series is going to go.”
The name Scivias comes from St. Hildegard von Bingen, one of the four female Doctors of the Church, whose most popular work was Scivias Domini, which means “Know the ways of the Lord.” Zimmerman called it “a very fitting title for our work of trying to know God’s ways but also my path for how he’s leading me.”
Each episode in Scivias builds on the previous. The episodes are filmed in different locations around Boston – places that have been significant in Zimmerman’s vocation, discernment, and path towards the priesthood. “The stories I tell, they will all be relevant to what you see. You’ll see different churches, communities, people, and places that were part of my path,” the priest said.
Father Eric Cadin, Vocations Director for the Archdiocese of Boston, said that “everyone needs to think about, pray with, and ponder their own vocation and realize whether they’re married, whether they are a priest or religious, or whatever state of life, that he or she is definitively called to holiness, to be a saint, and has a particular vocation.”
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Cadin described the state of vocations in the Archdiocese of Boston as “active and very hopeful.”
“I am in awe daily at the number of men who reach out from all different backgrounds wanting help and counsel to determine if God really is calling them to the priesthood,” Cadin said.
He attributed the positive vocational response in the archdiocese to two factors: “The people of God are praying for vocations and Cardinal [Sean] O’Malley, our bishop, is absolutely invested and passionate about vocations.”