A YEAR OF PRAYER FOR VOCATIONS

Bishop Paul S. Coakley

The First Sunday of Advent marks the beginning of a new liturgical year.  It is a new year of grace.   Advent is characterized by joyful hope and expectation.  We prepare to celebrate the birth of Christ; we look for his return in glory even as we continue to discern the presence of his coming Kingdom in our midst. 

Our hope is inexhaustible because it is rooted in God’s power, his promises and his mercy.  The Lord is faithful.  The Father who has given us all things in Christ his Son, and has given us a share in his own divine life through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, will not withhold anything that is truly beneficial for our salvation.  The Lord loves us and desires to bless us.

Moved by this hope and trusting in God’s mercy, I want to begin this new year of grace by calling the Diocese of Salina to a year of fervent prayer for a very particular intention.  I ask you to pray for vocations to the priesthood and religious life. 

During National Vocation Awareness Week the priests of the Diocese of Salina will be gathering for a Vocations Summit from January 14-17.  During our annual Clergy Renewal Days we will be reflecting on the gift of our own priestly vocations.  In the context of fraternity and prayer we will seek to renew the sense of wonder and gratitude that first characterized our own call to the priesthood so that we might more effectively inspire and invite other men to hear and respond to this call. 

I ask you to begin praying for the success of this important gathering and continue praying throughout the year (and beyond) asking the Lord to bless our diocese with an abundance of vocations to the priesthood and religious life.   The Lord desires to bless the Church in this way.  “I will give you shepherds after my own heart” (Jer.3:15).  This is God’s desire and promise!   But we must ask!  “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest” (Lk.10:2).  We cannot be complacent before such an urgent need.   Our prayer must be fervent, faith-filled and persevering.

Calling on the intercession of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, the principal patroness of the Diocese of Salina, I propose that the following prayer be used in our diocese during this Year of Prayer for Vocations.  In addition to other forms of prayer for vocations, especially liturgical prayer and Eucharistic devotions, I invite each of us to use this prayer as part of our daily personal prayer, our family prayer, in classrooms of our Catholic schools and religious education programs, at parish gatherings, in Eucharistic adoration chapels and before or after Mass as suitable.

The time has come to make a concerted effort as a diocesan family to pray ardently for an abundant harvest of vocations to the priesthood and religious life, as well as for the perseverance and well-being of the priests and religious who serve us so generously.  Let us ask the Master of the Harvest to make this new year of grace a very special time of grace and favor for the Diocese of Salina.

PRAYER FOR VOCATIONS

Diocese of Salina

Heavenly Father,

bless our diocese with the grace of many vocations

to the priesthood and religious life.

Through the intercession of Our Lady of Perpetual Help,

grant to those You have called

the willingness and generosity of spirit

to give themselves in devoting their lives and their talents

 to the service of Our Lord and to His Church.

Increase the faith of all within our diocese,

and particularly the faith of those You have called

and will continue to call to serve Your people.

Help each of us be good stewards of the gift of our vocation.

We ask this through Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Published 11-30-07 –

 The Register