O Mary,

Mother of Jesus Christ and Mother of priests:

accept this title with which we honor you today

to exalt your motherhood

and contemplate with you

the Priesthood of your only-begotten Son and of your children,

O Holy Mother of God.

 

Mother of Christ,

who to the Messiah the Priest didst give a body of flesh

by the anointing of the Holy Spirit

to save the poor and contrite in heart:

Keep in your womb and in the Church the priests,

O Mother of the Savior.

 

Mother of faith,

who accompanied the Son of man to the temple,

in fulfillment of the promises

made to our Fathers:

present to God the Father, for his glory,

the priests of your Son,

O Ark of the Covenant.

 

Mother of the Church,

who with the disciples in the Upper Room

implored the Spirit

for the new People and its Shepherds:

obtain for the order of the presbyters

the fullness of gifts,

O Queen of Apostles.

 

Mother of Jesus Christ,

you were with him at the beginning of his life and mission,

you sought him as Master in the crowd,

you accompanied him on the cross,

he was exhausted by the unique and eternal sacrifice,

and you had John at your side, as your son:

receive from the beginning 

those called to the priesthood,

protect them in their formation

and accompany them

in their life and ministry,

O Mother of priests.

Amen

 

(from the Apostolic Exhortation Pastores dado vobis, John Paul II)

"The obligation of every Missionary... to be up to date in everything related to the magisterium of the Church through the pontifical documents. But now I want to refer specifically to the Apostolic Exhortation of His Holiness Paul VI "Evangelii Nuntiandi", on the Evangelization of the contemporary world".

"I highly recommend to you the study, meditation and deepening of "Evangelii Nuntiandi".... It seems to me very important to always keep it in mind as something that burns us, that worries us, that tortures us, that does not allow us any rest while there is in the world a single person who does not know the Light, it is our being missionaries".

"This, to be missionaries, is our dearest right, our sweetest obligation and our most sacred duty. Duty and right that we must never forget at any moment of our life. To be missionaries... How?...to the point of giving our lives if necessary!...Where?.... Everywhere!...When?.... Always!... Measured? obedience. Like him, who "was obedient unto death and death on a cross" and "behold, I have come to do your most holy will"".

... "Missionaries with him, through him and in him. But like him, with him and in him in every sense of the word: in sacrifice, in pain, in suffering, even to death.... But also in joy, in our daily Eucharist, in our prayer, in our adoration, in our daily apostolate, in any kind of work, while we sleep and while we eat, while we rest and while we breathe, while our life is consumed minute by minute and in every beat of our heart! Always daughters, always; our missionary spirit must be universal, it must embrace all peoples, races and nations, it must embrace the world, there must be no frontiers of any kind."

"But testimony is not enough, "A living preaching" is indispensable and urgent: "But how will they call upon him in whom they have not believed, and how will they hear if no one preaches to them?..... Therefore faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ" (E.N. n.42). For this reason the Missionary... will strive so that not a single day will pass without her having preached Christ in some way".

"The realization that up to now only a small portion of humanity knows the true God should be for us missionaries something insufferable, something torturing, something that should not leave us any rest and that spurs us to do everything, everything, so that He may be known and loved by all the inhabitants of this world".

"With these reflections I leave you, daughters, in the arms of our Father God, under the action of the Holy Spirit; may they inspire you in the best way to bring to the whole world the great truth that Christ has already come".

Servant of God Ma. Inés-Teresa Arias

From Circular No. 13, 1977.

MESSAGE OF POPE JOHN PAUL II FOR THE 25TH WORLD DAY OF PRAYER FOR VOCATIONS (1987)

The Day of Vocations takes on a special significance in the context of the Marian Year which gathers all, Pastors and faithful, around Mary, Mother of the Redeemer, model of all "those called" and mediator of vocations.

Each one of those called, in raising his gaze to Mary, finds in her a perfect model for the knowledge of God's plan; to follow the Lord with determination according to his will; to accept with humility and joy the sacrifices that this choice of service and love entails (cf. Lk 1:28-38; Jn 19:25).

The believing community, while fulfilling its duty to care for vocations, sees in Mary Most Holy the One who "by her manifold intercession continues to obtain for us the gifts of eternal salvation" (Lumen Gentium, 62) - and therefore also the gifts of vocations - and invokes her as Mother of all vocations. In fact, with motherly love, she cooperates in the regeneration and formation of the sons and daughters of the Church. The words Jesus spoke to her from the cross: "Woman, behold your son", and to the disciple: "Behold your Mother" (Jn 19:26-27), are the words that determine Mary's place in the life of Christ's disciples and express her new spiritual motherhood, in the order of grace, because she implores the gift of the Holy Spirit, who raises up new sons and daughters of God (cf. Redemptoris Mater, 44).

Let us turn our gaze, then, to Mary so as to see and admire not only the one who, chosen, foretold, prepared and called, responded better than anyone else to the special vocation of which God made her the object, but the one who, more than anyone else, ensures that the plan of salvation reaches each and every one, according to the admirable disposition of God who calls all to collaborate with him (cf. 1 Tim 2:4).

...

To Mary, Mother of divine grace, I entrust vocations. May the new springtime of vocations, their increase in the whole Church, be in our time, and in the whole world, a special proof of her maternal presence in the mystery of Christ and in the mystery of his Church.