The family is especially
highlighted in the Pope’s message, and he challenges parents to be a “community
of life and love.” He writes, “Indeed
families are not only the privileged place for human and Christian formation;
they can also be the primary and most excellent seed-bed of vocations to a life
of consecration to the Kingdom of God, by helping their member to see,
precisely within the family, the beauty and the importance of the priesthood
and the consecrated life.”
Our Holy Father also stressed the
need to help our young people to grow in a life of prayer to help them discern
their vocation in life whether it is to marriage, priesthood, or religious
life. He explains, “Central to this should
be love of God’s word nourished by a growing familiarity with Sacred Scripture,
and attentive and unceasing prayer, both personal and in community; this will
make it possible to hear God’s call amid all the voices of daily life. But
above all, the Eucharist should be the heart of every vocation journey.”
(World Day for Vocations is this Sunday, April 29th.)
