This special day, also liturgically known as “Good Shepherd Sunday”, invites the Church to publicly pray for and promote vocations in all its forms. Many parishes and religious institutes commemorate this day with prayer for vocations and vocation promotion events. Considering that 73 percent of women and men professing final vows participated in one or more parish activities and 88 percent served in one or more parish ministries before entering religious life, our presence and participation in activities that mark this special day is essential. Consider asking parishes for opportunities to speak, pray, provide bulletin inserts, prayer cards, and conversation before and after Masses, in religious education programs, RCIA and confirmation formation classes on this day.
It the joy of simplicity, the joy experienced daily by those who care for what truly matters: faithful closeness to God and to our neighbor. How good it would be if the same atmosphere, simple and radiant, sober and hopeful, were to pervade our seminaries, religious houses and presbyteries! I pray that you will experience this same joy, dear brothers and sisters who have generously made God the dream of your lives, serving him in your brothers and sisters through a fidelity that is a powerful testimony in an age of ephemeral choices and emotions that bring no lasting joy. May Saint Joseph, protector of vocations, accompany you with his fatherly heart!
–Pope Francis, World Day of Prayer for Vocations, 2021
Prayer for World Day of Prayer for Vocations
Holy Spirit, stir within us the passion to promote vocations to the single and married life, consecrated life, societies of apostolic life, diocesan priesthood, and permanent diaconate.
Inspire us daily to respond to Your call with boundless compassion, abundant generosity, and radical availability.
Help us to remember our own baptismal call to rouse us to invite the next generation to hear and respond to Your call.
Inspire parents, families, and lay ecclesial ministers to begin a conversation with young Catholics to consider how they will live lives of holiness and sacred service.
Nudge inquirers and motivate discerners to learn more about vowed and associate commitment in apostolic life, cloistered life, evangelical life, lay ecclesial ministers, missionary life, monastic life, and societies of apostolic life.
Ignite our Church with the confident humility that there is an urgent need for all the baptized to live their vocation in solidarity with those who are poor, neglected, and marginalized.
Disrupt our comfortable lives and complacent attitudes with new ideas to respond courageously and creatively with a daily ‘YES!’ Amen.
Leader: God our Creator, hear our prayer,
All: Inspire us to answer your call.
Leader: As you called Abraham at the age of 75 to leave his home to be the father of many nations,
All: Inspire us to answer your call.
Leader: As you called Sarah who answered with laughter at the age of 90 to bear a son called Isaac,
All: Inspire us to answer your call.
Leader: As you called Moses from the burning bush, to speak boldly to Pharoah,
All: Inspire us to answer your call.
Leader: As you called Hannah’s son, Samuel, four times in his sleep, before he recognized your voice,
All: Inspire us to answer your call.
Leader: As you called the prophet Elijah with a tiny, whispering sound,
All: Inspire us to answer your call.
Leader: As you called prophet Isaiah, a man of unclean lips to be your prophet,
All: Inspire us to answer your call.
Leader: As you called the prophet Jeremiah from his mother’s womb,
All: Inspire us to answer your call.
Leader: As you called Zechariah and Elizabeth, both advanced in their years to bear a son named John,
All: Inspire us to answer your call.
Leader: As you called Mary as a teenager through the angel Gabriel,
All: Inspire us to answer your call.
Leader: As you called Joseph in his dreams,
All: Inspire us to answer your call.
Leader: As you called the first disciples to lower their nets after fishing all through the night,
All: Inspire us to answer your call.
Leader: As you called Mary of Magdala to be the first person to see the Risen Christ.
All: Inspire us to answer your call.
Leader: As you called our founders and foundresses of religious institutes to risk hope to follow Jesus,
All: Inspire us to answer your call.
Leader: As you call us forth to be ambassadors for Christ, to accompany one another,
All: Inspire us to answer your call. Amen.