National Vocation Awareness Week, Nov. 3-9, 2019 is a time during which we encourage and work to foster vocations among the faithful, and to pray for those discerning a call to marriage, ordained ministry or consecrated life.
Pope Francis so eloquently reminds us that -- unlike a secular career -- a vocation is a gift born from God’s own initiative. “The Lord’s call is not an intrusion of God into our freedom. On the contrary, it is the loving initiative whereby God encounters us and invites us to be a part of a great undertaking.”
I would also like to add my voice to that of Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R., of Newark, and chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations, who said discerning a vocation “Is a process of learning how to receive the greatest gift God could offer us – the gift of living in accordance with our true identity as a son or daughter of God.”
For those currently discerning a vocation, I would recommend praying to God through the intercession of our Blessed Mother, Mary, who is the mother of all vocations. Mary is one of us, but special. She was the first disciple. God picked her to be the mother of his son and she accepted God’s will. As St. Pope John Paul II once said, “She has the strength and ability to combine penetrating intuition with words of support and encouragement.
May God bless all those discerning a call to marriage, ordained ministry or consecrated life and, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, may he bring to completion the good work he has begun in them.