Background: World Day of Prayer for Vocations
April 23, 2021
On April 25, the Fourth Sunday of Easter, the Church commemorates the 58th World Day of Prayer for Vocations. Pope Francis’s message for the day is entitled “Saint Joseph: The Dream of Vocation,” and the US Conference of Catholic Bishops has released a statement for the day.
Pope St. Paul VI instituted the day of prayer in 1964 and placed it on the Sunday on which the Gospel of the Good Shepherd is read at Mass.
“The problem of having a sufficient number of priests,” he stated in his message for the 1st World Day of Prayer for Vocations, “has an immediate impact on all of the faithful: not simply because they depend on it for the religious future of Christian society, but also because this problem is the precise and inescapable indicator of the vitality of faith and love of individual parish and diocesan communities, and the evidence of the moral health of Christian families.”
“Wherever numerous vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life are to be found, that is where people are living the Gospel with generosity,” he added.
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Further information:
- Pope Francis: Messages, World Day of Prayer for Vocations
- Pope Benedict XVI: Messages, World Day of Prayer for Vocations
- Pope St. John Paul II: Messages, World Day of Prayer for Vocations
- Pope St. Paul VI: Messages, World Day of Prayer for Vocations
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