VATICAN CITY, 16 FEB 2010 (VIS) - "Witness Awakens
Vocations" is the title of the Pope's message for the 47th
World Day of Prayer for Vocations.
Here follow excerpts from the document:
"The fruitfulness of our efforts to promote vocations
depends primarily on God's free action, yet, as pastoral
experience confirms, it is also helped by the quality and
depth of the personal and communal witness of those who
have already answered the Lord's call to the ministerial
priesthood and to the consecrated life, for their witness is
then able to awaken in others a desire to respond
generously to Christ's call."
"In the Old Testament the prophets knew that they were
called to witness by their own lives to the message they
proclaimed, and were prepared to face misunderstanding,
rejection and persecution. In the fullness of time, Jesus,
sent by the Father, would bear witness to the love of God
for all human beings, without distinction, with particular
attention to the least ones, sinners, the outcast and the
poor. Jesus is the supreme Witness to God and to His
concern for the salvation of all."
"Similarly the calling of Peter occurred through the
witness of his brother Andrew. This was also the case for
Nathanael, Bartholomew, thanks to the witness of yet
another disciple, Philip. God's free and gracious initiative
encounters and challenges the human responsibility of all
those who accept his invitation to become, through their
own witness, the instruments of His divine call. This occurs
in the Church even today: The Lord makes use of the
witness of priests who are faithful to their mission in order
to awaken new priestly and religious vocations for the
service of the People of God."
"A fundamental element, one which can be seen in every
vocation to the priesthood and the consecrated life, is
friendship with Christ. If the priest is a "man of God", one
who belongs to God and helps others to know and love
Him, he cannot fail to cultivate a deep intimacy with God,
abiding in his love and making space to hear his Word."
"In following Jesus, everyone called to a life of special
consecration must do his utmost to testify that he has given
himself completely to God. This is the source of his ability
to give himself in turn to those whom Providence entrusts
to him in his pastoral ministry with complete, constant and
faithful devotion, enabling them too to become open to
meeting Christ, so that his Word may become a light to
their footsteps. The story of every vocation is almost
always intertwined with the testimony of a priest who
joyfully lives the gift of himself to his brothers and sisters for
the sake of the Kingdom of God.