On this Good Shepherd Sunday, we celebrate the
World Day of Prayer for Vocations. Pray
for an increase in vocations to the priesthood, dioconate and religious life,
especially for our diocese, that God will raise up good shepherds in our
midst. If God is calling you, contact
Fr. Hansoo Park at 416-968-0997 or vocations@vocations.ca.
PRAYER
FOR VOCATIONS
“A
Sign of Hope founded in Faith”
O Holy Spirit,
Spirit of wisdom and divine love, impart Your knowledge, understanding, and
counsel to youth that they may know the vocation wherein they can best serve
God. Give them courage and strength to follow God's holy will. Guide their
uncertain steps, strengthen their resolutions, shield their chastity, fashion
their minds, conquer their hearts, and lead them to the vineyards where they
will labor in God's holy service.
Amen.
Amen.
50th
WORLD DAY OF PRAYER FOR VOCATIONS
While the Second
Vatican Council was in session, the Servant of God, Paul VI,
instituted this day of worldwide prayer to God the Father, asking him to
continue to send workers for his Church (cf. Mt 9:38). “The problem of
having a sufficient number of priests”, as the Pope stated at the time, “has an
immediate impact on all of the faithful: not simply because they depend on it
for the religious future of Christian society, but also because this problem is
the precise and inescapable indicator of the vitality of faith and love of
individual parish and diocesan communities, and the evidence of the moral
health of Christian families. “Wherever
numerous vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life are to be found, that
is wherepeople are living the Gospel with generosity” (Radio Message, 11 April 1964).
Dear
Brothers and Sisters, what exactly is God’s faithfulness,
to which we adhere with unwavering hope? It is his love! He, the Father,
pours his love into our innermost self through the Holy Spirit (cf. Rom 5:5).
And this love, fully manifested in Jesus Christ, engages with our existence and
demands a response in terms of what each individual wants to do with his or her
life, and what he or she is prepared to offer in order to live it to the full. The love of God sometimes follows paths one
could never have imagined, but it always reaches those who are willing to be
found. Hope is nourished, then, by this certainty: “We ourselves have known
and believed in the love that God has for us” (1 Jn 4:16). This deep,
demanding love, which penetrates well below the surface, gives us courage; it
gives us hope in our life’s journey and in our future; it makes us trust in
ourselves, in history and in other people. I
want to speak particularly to the young and I say to you once again: “What
would your life be without this love?
Vocations
to the priesthood and the consecrated life are born out of the experience of a
personal encounter with Christ, out of sincere and confident dialogue with him,
so as to enter into his will. It is necessary, therefore, to
grow in the experience of faith, understood as a profound relationship with
Jesus, as inner attentiveness to his voice which is heard deep within us. This
process, which enables us to respond positively to God’s call, is possible in
Christian communities where the faith is lived intensely, where generous
witness is given of adherence to the Gospel, where there is a strong sense of
mission which leads people to make the total gift of self for the Kingdom of
God, nourished by recourse to the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist, and by
a fervent life of prayer. This latter “must on the one hand be something very
personal, an encounter between my intimate self and God, the living God. On the
other hand it must be constantly guided and enlightened by the great prayers of
the Church and of the saints, by liturgical prayer, in which the Lord teaches
us again and again how to pray properly.
I hope that young
people, who are presented with so many superficial and ephemeral options, will
be able to cultivate a desire for what is truly worthy, for lofty objectives,
radical choices, service to others in imitation of Jesus. Dear young people, do not be afraid to follow him and to walk the
demanding and courageous paths of charity and generous commitment! In that
way you will be happy to serve, you will be witnesses of a joy that the world
cannot give, you will be living flames of an infinite and eternal love, you
will learn to “give an account of the hope that is within you”
eBENEDICTUS PP. XVI
