Pope’s Message for 48th World Day of Prayer for Vocations
Vatican Information Service
Proposing Vocations in the Local Church” is the theme of the Pope’s Message for the 48th World Day of Prayer for Vocations, which is to be celebrated on May 15, 4th Sunday of Easter. Some extracts from the English-language version of the document:
The work of carefully encouraging and supporting vocations finds a radiant source of inspiration in those places in the Gospel where Jesus calls His disciples to follow Him and trains them with love and care. Before calling them, Jesus spent the night alone in prayer, listening to the will of the Father. Vocations to the ministerial priesthood and to the consecrated life are first and foremost the fruit of constant contact with the living God and insistent prayer lifted up to the ‘Lord of the harvest’, whether in parish communities, in Christian families or in groups specifically devoted to prayer for vocations.
“At the beginning of His public life, the Lord called some fishermen on the shore of the Sea of Galilee: ‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men’. It is a challenging and uplifting invitation that Jesus addresses to those to whom He says: ‘Follow me!’ He invites them to become His friends, to listen attentively to His Word and to live with Him. He teaches them complete commitment to God and to the extension of His kingdom in accordance with the law of the Gospel.
