(ANS – Vatican City) - On the morning of Friday, October 12th , the Rector Major of the Salesians, Fr Pascual Chávez, made a suggestion during the proceedings of the 13th  General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops; an appeal and a practical plan on "the urgent need to initiate and promote a  'culture of vocations in the Church' ".

In his speech Fr Chávez referred to paragraph 83 of the ‘Istrumentum Laboris’ – that on the issue of the lack of priests there is a need to begin a strong pastoral calling – and as in paragraphs 159-161, which bring into focus the "centrality of vocations" in the project of the New Evangelization.

"Evangelisation and vocations are two inseparable elements – said the Superior General of the Salesians – indeed, an authentic hallmark of good evangelisation is its ability to arouse vocations, to bring to maturity projects of Gospel life, to involve the whole person of those who are being evangelized to become disciples, witnesses and Apostles". For this the Ecclesial Ministry has got to become vocational, thus creating a culture of vocation, "which is a way of thinking and of coming to grips with life as a gift received from God for a project or a mission according to his plan".

The Christian vocation is a meeting, a personal relationship of friendship that fills the heart and transforms life: "this Synod on New Evangelisation is to help all pastors to be true spiritual guides for the young, like John the Baptist pointed out Jesus to his own disciples saying to them: Behold the Lamb of God!". A meeting that is about communicating and sharing the enthusiasm and the passion with which you live your vocation.

"More,  that vocational campaigns be put into action: families, parishes, all our schools should be able to create a pastoral microclimate where they can grow and ripen vocations, forming a genuine culture of vocation in which life is conceived and lived as a gift, as a vocation and mission, amidst the diversity of options," suggested the Rector Major, pointing out that if the causes of the decline in vocations are known, the solutions to this phenomenon are less clear and decisive.

The vocational dimension constitutes the guiding principle and the natural opportunity of youth pastoral work: "the pastoral vocation needs to create suitable conditions for each young person to discover, take on and follow their vocation responsibly".

The contents of a genuine culture of vocations comprise three areas: Anthropological (to think about and present the human person as a vocation), educative (to propose values suited to the vocation) and pastoral (the relationship between vocation and cultural objective and drawing  conclusions therefrom for vocational work).

Fr Chavez suggested an operational proposal consisting of four points:

• To form in Church structures an environment/culture in which the vocational proposal can be well understood, welcomed and come to maturity: "the environment of joy and family, powered by a strong spiritual experience which reveals to the young a God who loves them and has for each one of them a project of happiness and life, in a personal relationship of friendship with Jesus and Mary, and the proper sacramental experience that supports and stimulates growth in daily life. All permeated by a strong Apostolic passion, which leads them to be people for others, ready to serve and committed to it. "
• to offer to anyone looking for an orientation to their vocation a true spiritual guidance that helps their self-knowledge; the recognition of Jesus, the risen Lord, as a supreme consciousness of his existence; the discovery of one's own life and events of history as God's gift and as a call; and, finally, the personal absorption of Gospel values.
• An intense love for the Church.
• To teach about personal prayer which helps young people to assume attitudes such as silence, reflection, ability to read one's life, the willingness to listen and to contemplate, gratuitousness and trust.

"Young people today often live in an environment hardly favourable to spiritual life. They are immersed in a culture of consumerism and the gain of personal enjoyment and immediate satisfaction of desires. On the other hand, we find in adolescents and the young a search for interiority, an effort to seize their identity and also an opening and a sincere quest for a transcendental experience".

Published 12/10/2012