World Day of Prayer for Vocations: April 25, 2021

The Fourth Sunday of Easter, Good Shepherd Sunday, directs us to Christ the Good Shepherd, and calls the church to prayer for pastoral leaders. The prayer in fact expands, calling each disciple of Christ to consider God’s unique call to them. We thus take up in prayer the need for priestly vocations, for growth in consecrated life, and indeed for the discernment of vocation to Christian life that God makes to all. The message of vocation takes on added significance for us at Portsmouth this week, a week that begins with this global prayer for vocations and ends with the celebration of Saint Joseph. Saturday, May 1, commemorating Joseph the Worker, is also the National Day of Religious Brothers. We therefore can add to our prayer the religious Brothers of our own community. This confluence of feasts adds to our joy and to reinforces our prayer as we gain a brother, adding a novice to the Portsmouth community.

Br. Joseph at Mass

The World Day of Vocations was inaugurated under Pope Paul VI. In his message, offered over the radio, for the “First World Day of Vocations” on April 11, 1964, the Holy Father offered the following prayer: “O Jesus, divine Shepherd of souls, who called the Apostles to make them fishers of men, attract to Yourself still ardent and generous souls of young people, to make them your followers and your ministers; make them share in your thirst for universal Redemption, for which you renew your Sacrifice on the altars: You, O Lord, ‘always alive to intercede for us’ (Heb 7: 25), open to them the horizons of the whole world, where the mute supplication of so many brothers asks for the light of truth and the warmth of love; so that responding to your call, they may extend your mission here below, build up Your Mystical Body, which is the Church, and be ‘salt of the earth’, ‘light of the world’ (Mt 5: 13)… Extend, O Lord, your loving call also to many souls of innocent and generous women, and instill in them the desire for evangelical perfection, and dedication to the service of the Church and of the brothers in need of assistance and charity. So be it.” (Vatican website)

Br. Sixtus at the Centennial Mass (2019)

In his message this year, Pope Francis reminds us that fidelity to vocation – a theme resonant with the Benedictine vow of conversatio morum – is not fundamentally a burden of obligation, but a wellspring of authentic joy: “This fidelity is the secret of joy. A hymn in the liturgy speaks of the ‘transparent joy’ present in the home at Nazareth. It is the joy of simplicity, the joy experienced daily by those who care for what truly matters: faithful closeness to God and to our neighbour. How good it would be if the same atmosphere, simple and radiant, sober and hopeful, were to pervade our seminaries, religious houses and presbyteries!” (Message for 2021) He thus unites his message for this year’s World Day of Prayer for Vocations to the patronage of Saint Joseph, and therefore to “the home at Nazareth.” The home at Nazareth in turn becomes the wellspring for the joy authentic vocation inspires in our own homes, in our parish communities, and in our religious houses. Please consider vocations of all sorts this day and this week in your prayer, supported by the words of Christ: “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.” (John 15:11-12).

Br. Benedict lighting candles for the Centennial Mass (2019)