Message of the Holy Father John Paul II for the XXXVI World Day of Prayer for Vocations (1999)
The vocation to be “holy, for he is holy” (Lv 11:44) is fulfilled when God is acknowledged in his rightful place. In our times, secularized and fascinated by the search for the sacred, there is a special need for saints who, living intensely the primacy of God in their lives, make his loving and provident presence perceptible.
Holiness, a gift to be continually sought, is the most precious and effective response to the contemporary world’s hunger for hope and life. Humanity needs holy priests and consecrated souls who daily live the total gift of self to God and neighbor; fathers and mothers capable of witnessing within the domestic walls to the grace of the sacrament of marriage, awakening in those who approach them the desire to realize the Creator’s plan for the family; young people who have personally discovered Christ and have been so fascinated by him as to impassion their peers for the cause of the Gospel.