Good
Shepherd Sunday, the 4th Sunday after Easter is designated World
Day of Prayer for Vocations.
Pope
St. Paul VI instituted the day of prayer in 1964 and placed it on the Sunday on
which the Gospel of the Good Shepherd is read at Mass.
“The
problem of having a sufficient number of priests,” he stated in his message for
the 1st World Day of Prayer for Vocations, “has an immediate impact on all of
the faithful: not simply because they depend on it for the religious future of
Christian society, but also because this problem is 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.”
“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. This latter “must on the one hand be something very personal, an encounter between my intimate self and God, the living God. On the other hand it must be constantly guided and enlightened by the great prayers of the Church and of the saints, by liturgical prayer, in which the Lord teaches us again and again how to pray properly.” (Spe Salvi, 34). Pope Benedict XVI, 2013