The World Day of Prayer for Vocations or Vocations Sunday
will be celebrated tomorrow, April 21, on the Fourth Sunday of Easter. The
theme chosen for this year is:
“Vocations as a sign of hope founded in faith”.
This 50th World Day of Prayer for
Vocations also coincides with the Year of Faith, which is marking the 50th
anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council. While the Council was
sitting, Pope Paul VI instituted the World Day of Prayer for Vocations which is
a worldwide day of prayer to God, asking him to continue to send workers for
his Church (cf. Mt 9:38).
When he published the message for
Vocations Sunday 2013 in .October last year, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI said:
“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.”
Let us ask
Jesus, the Lord of the harvest, to send workers in His Vineyard: more priests
and religious men and women who will continue to spread the message of
salvation throughout the world.
