The World Day of Prayer for Vocations or Vocations Sunday will be celebrated on Sunday 21 April 2013. The theme chosen for 2013 is: “Vocations as a sign of hope founded in faith”.
This is the 50th World Day of Prayer for Vocations and it also coincides with the Year of Faith, which is marking the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council. While the Council was sitting, Pope Paul VI instituted the World Day of Prayer for Vocations which is a worldwide day of prayer to God, asking him to continue to send workers for his Church (cf. Mt 9:38)
When he published the message for Vocations Sunday 2013 in October last year, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI said “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).”
- Reflection on vocation by Fr Chris O'Donnell
- Fr Frank Duhig - Vocation story
- Fr Noel Kirwin - Vocation story
- Fr John O'Shea - Vocation story
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