World Day of Prayer for Vocations

This image of Christ with a community of
faithful in the background greets each
of the sisters entering the Chapel
for the Liturgy of Hours and Mass.

Greetings,

Pope Benedict XVI's message for the World Day of Prayer for Vocations began with a reminder of how it all begins...The source of every perfect gift is God who is Love – Deus caritas est: “Whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him” (1 Jn 4:16).  Our love for God in response to the love God has freely shared with each of us.  This love is then shared with each other in the dailiness of our community life through our self-offering.

It is in this soil of self-offering and openness to the love of God, and as the fruit of that love, that all vocations are born and grow. By drawing from this wellspring through prayer, constant recourse to God’s word and to the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, it becomes possible to live a life of love for our neighbours, in whom we come to perceive the face of Christ the Lord (cf. Mt 25:31-46). To express the inseparable bond that links these “two loves” – love of God and love of neighbour – both of which flow from the same divine source and return to it, Pope Saint Gregory the Great uses the metaphor of the seedling: “In the soil of our heart God first planted the root of love for him; from this, like the leaf, sprouts love for one another.” (Moralium Libri, sive expositio in Librum B. Job, Lib. VII, Ch. 24, 28; PL 75, 780D).

Our community followed this call to prayer out of love for those discerning God's Call.  We remembered those women and men pondering their vocation during our intercessory prayer at our Liturgy of the Hours and Mass, we also added an prayer to be shared together in the refectory.  These are additional to the daily prayers offered by our elders in their own devotionals and our Tuesday intercessions for vocations.  This day of prayer also leads to wonderful discussion.  Many of the sisters shared their own vocation stories throughout the day...God works in mysterious ways...and none more dynamic than how He tugs on each sister's heart to lead her to follow Him.

Blessings,