VOCATIONS AS A SIGN OF HOPE

 

            "Prayer", Jacob Lawrence, 1947- Whitney Museum of American Art, NY 

Tomorrow, May 11 the Fourth Sunday of Easter, is Mother’s Day and also the Church commemorates the 62nd World Day of Prayer for Vocations. It is important to remember that without priests, there would be no Eucharistic celeration, no partaking in the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.

 Pope St. Paul VI instituted the day of prayer in 1964 and placed it on the Sunday on which the Gospel of the Good Shepherd is read at Mass. 

The message for this day, was issued by the late Pope Francis on March 19, entitled “Pilgrims of Hope: The Gift of Life.” Following an introduction, the message has three brief sections, entitled “Embracing our specific vocation,” “Discerning our vocational path,” and “Accompanying vocations.”

 “The problem of having a sufficient number of priests,” Pope Paul stated in his message for the 1st World Day of Prayer for Vocations, “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 where people are living the Gospel with generosity,” he added.

Pope Benedict’s prayer in 2013 with the theme "Vocations as a sign of Hope founded in Faith", especially addressed to young people, fits right in with Pope Francis' theme for  the Jubilee Year 2025 of HOPE:

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” .