This Sunday is the World Day of Prayer for Vocations. It is an occasion set aside for asking Our Lord to serve His Church with priests and religious, adding to the prayers bishops offer all year round with the support of the faithful.
All Catholics have a vocation, a unique calling, as Blessed John Henry Newman and later the Second Vatican Council pronounced so clearly. This suggests that prayers for vocations should involve asking Our Lord what He expects of each of us individually.
Prayer before the Blessed Sacrament may help Catholics discern their vocations, which may be to a profession, or to a state of life, and it might be on their knees that they discover they are not actually called to the priesthood. Bishop Mark Davies of Shrewsbury noted recently that the “greatest vocational crisis” in his diocese is to that
of marriage.
Catholics sure of their vocation should also pray they continue to fulfil it in accordance with the will of God, asking for the grace to be a worthy priest, parent, spouse, neighbour, doctor, teacher, taxi driver police officer, or whatever they may be.
This is a daily struggle but one which ought to result in sanctity and eternal happiness.
