(ANS – Roma) – On Sunday 21 April, the Church celebrates the Fiftieth World Day of Prayer for Vocations. The theme for 2013 - “Vocations, a sign of hope founded in faith” – fits in well with the Year of Faith and the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council. The most recent letter of the Rector Major reminds us to pray for the quality and authenticity of our vocational fidelity.
 
What inspired Paul VI to institute this day of prayer, to be celebrated each year on the fourth Sunday of Easter, was a concern to guarantee ”the religious future of Christian society”. Vocations are “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” (Paul VI, Radio Message, 11 April 1964).

Developing the theme of Faith and Hope, Benedict XVI reminds us that the love of God “fully manifested in Jesus Christ, engages with our existence and demands a response in terms of what each individual wants to do with his or her life, and what he or she is prepared to offer in order to live it to the full.”

“Just as he did during his earthly existence, so today the risen Jesus walks along the streets of our life and sees us immersed in our activities, with all our desires and our needs. In the midst of our everyday circumstances he continues to speak to us; he calls us to live our life with him, for only he is capable of satisfying our thirst for hope. […] Today too, Jesus continues to say, “Come, follow me” (Mk 10:21).”

Fruitfulness in the field of vocations is described briefly by Benedict XVI as follows: “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.”

Concluding his message the Pope says: “Deep and constant prayer brings about growth in the faith of the Christian community, in the unceasingly renewed certainty that God never abandons his people and that he sustains them by raising up particular vocations – to the priesthood and the consecrated life – so that they can be signs of hope for the world.”
 
The Rector Major Fr Pascual Chávez also urges prayer for vocations and for fidelity and authenticity in living out one’s vocation. By way of conclusion to his most recent letter “Vocation and Formation: gift and task” (AGC n.416) he entrusts the quality of formation of new Salesians to Mary: “O Mary, Mother and Teacher of all the disciples of your Son, we look to you and we see in you the first of the Consecrated ones, who knew how to respond with undivided heart and unconditional dedication to the Father’s call.”

Published 19/04/2013