Prayer to the Virgin Mary for Vocations
Hail Mary, our mother, teacher and queen. Listen with kindness to the supplication that we present to you according to the desire of Jesus: “Pray the Lord of the harvest to send workers into his harvest”.
Turn your merciful eyes towards all men. Many are wandering in the darkness, without a father, without a shepherd and without a teacher. In you, Mary, they will find the path to Christ,
for the Father has constituted you “apostle”, to give Jesus, the way the truth and the life, to the world.
Through you, all Catholics, with all their strength, for all vocations, for all apostolates.
Through you, all the believers for all the non-believers; all the committed for all the indifferent; all Catholics for all non-Catholics.
Through you, may all who are called be faithful to their vocation, may all apostles be holy, may all men welcome them.
At the foot of the cross your heart was open to welcome us all as children.
Give us an apostolic heart, modeled after that of Jesus, after yours and that of St. Paul, so that one day
we may all meet together with you in the Father’s house.
Bless your children, Mary, mother, teacher and queen.
Blessed Giacomo Alberione
In appreciation to the women of the 40 Hours Project
Dear mothers and women of the 40 hours:
Thank you for your prayers for all of us.
The first thing I would like to thank you for is your participation in this mission to pray that vocations may
arise, that you remain faithful and reach holiness so that in turn these consecrated and priestly vocations may bring the Gospel to so many souls and lead them to heaven.
When I was a little girl, my family lived very close to Luján (Argentina), five of my siblings were born there. As it is known, our founder attributed every vocation in our Religious Family to the intercession of the Virgin of Luján; that is why it is so important that your prayers reach God through her.
Here in our monastery, after a short time of its foundation, we placed an oil lamp to the Virgin of Luján, committing ourselves to keep it lit day and night, asking her for an increase, perseverance and sanctity of vocations. Every week there is a sister who is in charge of replenishing the oil so that it does not go out, and if any of us forget, the sister in charge reminds us that we have the office of Negrito Manuel, who kept the lamp of the Virgin of Lujan lit throughout his life.
I think that you, mothers and women of the 40 hours, are like other “Negrito Manuel” who, with your prayers and sacrifices for vocations, keep the fire burning before Our Mother.
In the name of all the vocations that have been, are and will be, we thank you for your dedication and your prayer.
M. María de la Crucifixión
Monasterio San Juan Bautista de la Concepción (Torrelaguna, Spain)
St. John Paul II: Through your people Christ wants to reach all of humanity
POPE MESSAGE JOHN PAUL II FOR THE XXII WORLD PRAYER CONFERENCE FOR VOCATIONS
¡Young people, Christ loves you!Here is the happy announcement that cannot but fill you with admiration. My message to you cannot be other than the same from the Gospel: Christ has for you young people a love of predilection and challenges you to love.
My dialogue with you has already known the ways of the world and everywhere I have found young people thirsty for love and truth, although burdened by many questions and problems about the meaning of one’s life.
Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for you to fall under false guides and false teachers, who try to seduce you, abuse your generosity and even push yourself towards activities that generate only bitterness and disappointment.
I would like to ask you now: Have you found the One who has proclaimed himself the only true “Master” (Mt 23,8)? ¿Do you not know that only He “has words of eternal life” (Jn 6, 68) and has the true answers to your problems?
The love of Christ is the greatest force in the world, it is your strength. ¿Have you made this wonderful discovery? When a young man or a young woman has personally found Christ and discovered his love, he has confidence in Him, listens to his voice, decides to follow him, ready for everything, even to give your life for Him.
¡Young people, Christ calls you! Love knows different ways, because the tasks that He entrusts to each and every one of you are different.
In the sphere of Christian life, every baptized person has received his “call” from the Lord, and all vocations are important, all deserve great esteem and recognition, all must be listened to and followed with generosity. However, the Lord Jesus, in founding the Church, wanted to institute particular ministries, which He entrusts to those among his disciples whom he freely chooses.
Thus, to many of you, more than could be assumed, the Divine Redeemer wants to make you part of the ministerial priesthood to give humanity the Eucharist, to forgive sins, to preach the Gospel, to guide communities. Christ counts on you for this wonderful mission. Priests are necessary to the world because Christ is necessary.
To many of you Jesus asks you to leave everything to follow Him poor, chaste, obedient. To many young women he addresses the mysterious call to live a project of exclusive love for Him in the virginal life.
¿Do you think that these calls refer to others and may not be able to address your person? ¿Do they seem very difficult to you because they involve resignations, sacrifices and even the giving of life?
Observe the readiness of the Apostles. Observe the magnificent experience of thousands and thousands of priests, deacons, religious, consecrated laity, missionaries who have come to heroism to bear witness to the humanity of the dead and risen Christ.
Observe the generosity of thousands upon thousands of young people, who are preparing for sacred orders in seminaries, novitiates, and other formation institutions, to the profession of the evangelical counsels, to the missionary mandate. To all these young people go my expression of encouragement and the invitation to propose to their peers the ideal they are realizing.
¡Young people, Christ commands you!“Go to the whole world and announce the Gospel to all creatures” (Mc 16, 15 ). These words spoken by the Lord before ascending to the Father, he addresses today to many of you. On the threshold of the third millennium of the coming of Jesus, a great multitude of men have not yet received the light of the Gospel and lie in grave conditions of injustice and misery.
The Lord Himself reveals the disproportion between the immense needs of universal salvation and the insufficient number of his collaborators. “The harvest is great but the operators are few” (Mt 9, 37 ): exclaimed, seeing the crowds of all time tired and burdened like sheep without a shepherd. In my apostolic trips to all parts of the earth, I increasingly confirm the actuality of the Savior’s lament.
Only the grace of God, requested by prayer, can fill this painful disproportion. ¿Will you remain indifferent listening to the cry that rises from humanity? I urge you to pray and also to offer your people, if the Master of the harvest wanted to send you as operators to his harvest ( cf. Mt 9, 38 ).
Stand in the front row among those who are ready to leave their own land for a mission without borders. Through your people Christ wants to reach all of humanity.