SOME REFLECTIONS ON PRAYER FOR VOCATIONS
By the grace of God I have had a grandmother, a mother and a sister who prayed
tirelessly for vocations. The dim memories I have of my grandmother, who
attended Holy Mass daily, remind me of her ardent desire that God would grant
one of her children the grace of vocation.
I remember my mother, who spoke to me and transmitted to me the value and great
dignity of the Priesthood. Dignity that she ardently defended against the
imprudent attacks of her friends and neighbors. This Mother who loved the
Priesthood, undoubtedly in the depths of her prayers wished that one of her
children, God would grant her the grace of vocation. I remember as if it were
today the day I told her that God was calling me to the missionary priesthood,
she wept untiringly, – I told her, Mother, but why are you crying, you always
spoke to me about the great dignity of the priesthood. She answered me, I don’t
remember exactly the words, but the idea was more or less this: – yes I know,
but I have mixed feelings, I cry with sadness that you will go away from us,
and also with joy for your call. Besides, to this day, whenever I talk to her I
always ask her how she is, she answers me: – with many sorrows, but I offer
them all for you and for the conversion of sinners.
And undoubtedly, my religious sister who made a whole congregation pray for her
brother’s vocation to the priesthood and to the Institute.
That is why I know firsthand the power of prayer for vocations, their
development and perseverance. And I thank God and each of you for each of your
prayers.
In this brief text I would like to present some reflections on the foundations
and consequences of prayer for vocations. Following mainly the thought of St.
John Paul II on this topic.
1) The first thing we have to analyze in relation to prayer for vocations is
its foundation:
St. John Paul II said: “It is very evident why the first and principal
commitment in favor of vocations cannot be other than prayer: “The harvest
is plentiful but the laborers are few. Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest
to send out laborers into his harvest” (Mt 9:37-38; cf. Lk 10:2). And the
Holy Father affirmed, “Prayer for vocations is not and cannot be the fruit
of resignation, as if we think that we have already done everything possible
for vocations, with very few results, and that therefore we have nothing left
to do but pray. In fact, prayer is not a kind of delegation to the Lord so that
he will act instead of us. On the contrary, it means trusting him, placing
ourselves in his hands, which in turn gives us confidence and disposes us to
carry out the works of God.
That is why prayer for vocations is certainly the task of the entire Christian
community.”
The Holy Father said elsewhere: “It is really God himself, the “Lord
of the harvest,” who chooses his workers; his call is always undeserved
and unexpected. And yet, in the mystery of God’s covenant with us, we are
called to cooperate with his providence, and to use the powerful instrument he
has placed in our hands: prayer. Jesus himself asked us to do so: ‘Pray therefore
the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest’ (Mt
9:38).”
The Holy Father thus exhorted to pray to an association dedicated to prayer for
vocations, which perfectly can be applied to each of you: “Dear members
—” you have committed yourselves in a special way to promote vocations.
Do not forget that your commitment must be, above all, a commitment to prayer,
a constant, unwavering and trusting prayer. Prayer moves the heart of God. It
is the powerful key to resolving the question of vocations. But, at the same
time, prayer for vocations is also a school of life, as I recently emphasized:
“In praying for vocations, we learn to look with evangelical wisdom at the
world and at the needs of life and salvation of every human being; moreover, we
live the charity and compassion of Christ for humanity”.
2) Secondly, I would like us to analyze the admirable development that the
commitment to prayer for vocations should produce. The Holy Father presents
three practical consequences of the exercise of prayer for vocations.
In the first place: “prayer must be accompanied by an entire pastoral
ministry that has a clear and explicit vocational character. -This means that
from the time our children and young people begin to know God and to form a
moral conscience, they must be helped to discover that life is a vocation and
that God calls some to follow him more intimately, in communion with him and in
self-giving.”
Secondly, “For this reason,” the Holy Father continues,
“Christian families have a great and irreplaceable mission and
responsibility with regard to vocations, and they must be helped to respond to
them in a conscious and generous way. Similarly, catechesis and the whole
pastoral care of Christian initiation must offer a first vocational
proposal.”
3) And, finally, each parish and Christian community, in all its components and
organizations, must feel co-responsible for the vocational proposal and
accompaniment.”
In these consequences of prayer for vocations, we see how the Holy Father shows
the admirable expansion between: the interior and spiritual personal
relationship with God through prayer, which in turn, will form strong and
healthy families; where they will learn to live according to the truth, in
obedience to the moral law, in the free exercise of the search for the will of
God, and in the general desire to seriously seek holiness; which in turn, will
be part of prayerful, enthusiastic and lively ecclesial communities. In these
environments and with these interior and exterior dispositions, educated and
fruit of prayer, the voice of the Lord will be heard with greater force, with
greater clarity and with greater resonance in the lives of those whom God has
chosen and for whom he has prayed. It will also provide those called with the
means for a total and generous dedication to the service of their brothers and
sisters.
This is how St. John Paul II expressed it: “In addition to promoting
prayer for vocations, it is urgent to strive, by means of explicit proclamation
and adequate catechesis, to foster in those called to the consecrated life the
free, decisive and generous response which makes the grace of vocation
operative.” (Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consecrata,
64).
And in the message of St. John Paul II to Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte he
said:
“Only a Christian community more committed to the path of holiness and
more determined to affirm the primacy of the supernatural and to recognize in
the liturgy “the summit and source” of every apostolic work will be
able to arouse the desire and the joy of giving oneself totally to the Lord and
to cultivate the seeds of vocations to the priesthood and to the consecrated
life, which Jesus continues to sow in the hearts of so many boys and
girls.”
Moreover, the Holy Father, speaks of a reality that I admire in many of you,
which is that ardent desire that many more people join your voice, to implore
God to send many and holy vocations. Thus the Holy Father said:
“In addition to prayer, the work of promoting vocations also requires a
constant effort, through personal witness, to draw people’s attention to this
need, so that God’s call may be truly heard and find a generous response from
those to whom it is addressed. This is the goal of your efforts to spread an authentic
culture of vocations”.
To conclude these reflections, I would like to end with an exhortation to pray
for vocations from the great Chilean Saint, St. Alberto Hurtado:
“For, as
Fr. Doncoeur says so well, “We have not yet sufficiently understood that
God asks for human collaboration for the call and for the response.”
How to collaborate? The first collaboration is what the Master explicitly
taught us: Pray the Lord of the harvest to send workers into the harvest,
because the harvest is plentiful and the workers are few. The priestly vocation
is God’s work, since, as Our Lord said to his apostles: “You did not
choose me, but it is I who chose you”. It is therefore necessary to ask
the Master to multiply his graces and to give more and more graces to those
called so that they allow themselves to be chosen.
Therefore, a true crusade of public and private prayers should be raised
without interruption throughout our country; a true clamor of prayers in the
centers of Catholic Action, in homes, in schools and in religious communities.
The prayer for vocations should be prayed by every Christian. The first
vocational prayer should be the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, accompanied by our
own sacrifice in union with the divine Victim so that his blood may redeem more
and more souls.
Together with prayer, there should be frequent preaching of what the priest is,
his mission, the collaboration of the family. How many young men could be
excellent priests if the field of possibilities were opened to them and they
understood that they too can be priests!” .
Finally, it only remains for me to thank you for your titanic work of prayer
for vocations. And I implore God and his Blessed Mother that each of your
prayers may be fruitful with many and holy vocations for each of your families.
P. Luis Geovanny Arbeláez Vargas, IVE
Missionary in
Russia