It is Vocation Awareness Week.
As we all know, too well, there is a serious lack of
vocations to the priesthood and religious life in our diocese. I leave out the Permanent Diaconate, because I
believe that our diocese is fairly strong in fostering this vocation, as there
are 9 (or there about) men who are in formation who are scheduled to be
ordained this year, and many more in various other stages of formation. Praise be to God for these men and their
families!
That said, I find it very sad that except for St. CharlesBorromeo in Greece, who dedicated the front page of their bulletin to vocations
awareness and St. Pius X in Chili, who published the prayer for vocations in
their bulletin, I found no other parish bulletin in Rochester that even
mentioned Vocations Awareness Week. And
to make matters even worse, there is no mention of it at all on the DORwebsite, or the “Vocations Home Page”, which incidentally, does not look like
it has been updated in quite a while.
Vocation Awareness Week should be an important part of
every parish. We should be praying for
and fostering vocations and the only way to really do this is to actually
talk about them!!
Wouldn’t be wonderful
to hear your priest tell his vocation story in a homily? To talk about how he heard “the call” and
what he did to foster that? I would bet
the farm that he would say that at some point, it was another parishioner who
planted the seed in his heart, or who saw his potential and encouraged
him. And isn’t that our job? Prayers are important, but sometimes, you
actually have to do something!!
Take a moment, pray for all priests, deacons, and religious
brothers & sister and pray that we, as a Church, can foster more vocations
and that we all will live the vocation that God has planned for us with joyful
hearts. And if you know a young man or
woman, who you think may have a vocation to the religious life- talk to them
about it!
Encourage them!! Be there for
them!! Do Something!!
Lord Jesus,
once You called the first disciples in order to make them fishers of men.
Continue to let resound today Your sweet invitation: “Come and Follow Me.”
Grant to young men and women the grace of responding promptly to Your voice.
Sustain our bishops, priests, and consecrated souls in their apostolic work.
Give perseverance to our seminarians and to all those who are fulfilling the
ideal of a life of total consecration to Your service.
Enkindle in our communities a missionary zeal. Send, Lord, workers into Your
fields and do not let mankind be lost because of a lack of pastors,
missionaries, and people dedicated to the cause of the Gospel.
Mary, Mother of the Church, Model of Vocations, help us say “Yes” to the Lord
Who calls us to collaborate in the divine design of salvation. Amen.
~Pope
John Paul II
