For Vocations To The Priesthood And Religious Life

Pope Francis' February 2025 prayer intention

"Let us pray that the ecclesial community might welcome the desires and doubts of those young people who feel a call to serve Christ’s mission in the priesthood and religious life."

Pope Francis

Pope Francis asks the Church to offer prayers for vocations. There is a shortage of candidates for priesthood and religious life in the Western world, causing a vocational crisis. We pray that the Church will assist young people in identifying priesthood and religious life vocations, in the midst of their doubts and desires.

It is also important to recognize the kindness and generosity of those who are considering a call to the priesthood and religious life, even in light of the shrinking enrollment in seminaries and houses of formation. 

" The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers few.

Ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest."

Mt 9: 37- 38

What is Vocation?

Vocation is “the interplay between divine choice and human freedom”, a dynamic and exciting relationship between God and the human heart. The gift of vocation is like a divine seed that springs up in the soil of our existence, opens our hearts to God and to others, so that we can share with them the treasure we ourselves have found. This is the fundamental structure of what we mean by vocation: God calls us in love and we, in gratitude, respond to him in love. We realize that we are beloved sons and daughters of the one Father, and we come to see ourselves as brothers and sisters of one another.

Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, when at last she “saw” this clearly, exclaimed, “At last I have found my calling: my call is love. Indeed, I have found my proper place in the Church… In the heart of the Church, my Mother, I will be love”.

Pope Francis

Saint Pope John Paul II asked this question, “What will you do with your life? What are your plans? Have you ever thought of committing your existence totally to Christ? Do you think that there can be anything greater than to bring Jesus to people and people to Jesus?” (Manchester, England, 1982)

Men and women often start to discern religious life because of a question like this, either from another person or in the quiet of prayer. As earthly pilgrims seeking Heaven, determining whether religious life is the vocation to which God has called you is only one part of the journey. God will ultimately reveal the best course for your life if your ultimate objective is to live the life he intends for you. 

Let us pray with thanksgiving for

"all those consecrated men and women who offer their lives to the Lord in the silence of prayer and in apostolic activity, sometimes on the fringes of society, tirelessly and creatively exercising their charism by serving those around them. And I think of all those who have accepted God’s call to the ordained priesthood, devoting themselves to the preaching of the Gospel, breaking open their own lives, together with the bread of the Eucharist, for their brothers and sisters, sowing seeds of hope and revealing to all the beauty of God’s kingdom."

Pope Francis

We pray that the Church will assist young people in identifying priesthood and religious life vocations, in the midst of their doubts and desires.

Let us pray for vocations to the Priesthood and Religious Life

“O Jesus, divine Shepherd of souls, you called the apostles and made them fishers of men. Continue to draw to yourself ardent and generous souls from among the young,

in order to make them your followers and your ministers.

Give them a share in your thirst for the redemption of all…

Open before them the horizons of the entire world…

By responding to your call, may they prolong your mission here on earth,

build up your Mystical Body which is the Church,

and be ‘the salt of the earth’ and ‘the light of the world’ (Mt 5:13)”.

Prayer composed by Saint Paul VI for the first World Day of Vocations, 11 April 1964,