VATICAN - At the Regina Caeli the Pope prays “for a growing number of people who respond to Christ’s call to follow Him on the path to priesthood or consecrated life... and that that the seeds of vocation which God sows in the heart of the faithful may mature and bear fruits of holiness in the Church and in the world”

Monday, 8 May 2006

AFGHANISTAN

2024-04-22
Commemoration of the victims of the Easter attacks: Catholic Church wants to initiate the beatification process of their martyrdom

2024-02-07
Manipur, torn by conflict, tries to reconnect the threads of dialogue

2023-12-04
The Franciscan Pastoral Center of the Diocese of Jinan celebrates the 60th anniversary of Sacrosanctum Concilium, to continue walking on the paths opened by the Second Vatican Council

2023-10-16
Prayer for the reconciliation of the peoples of Israel and Palestine

2022-02-24
Integrating refugees into society: the commitment of the Pro Bambini Association of Kabul

2021-12-18
The Barnabites, with their hearts in Kabul: "Pray for Afghanistan"

Vatican City (Fides Service) - On Sunday 7 May Pope Benedict XVI addressed thousands of people gathered in St Peter’s Square to pray the midday Regina Caeli prayer. “On this 4th Sunday of Easter, Good Shepherd Sunday, annual Day of Prayer for Vocations - the Pope said - I have had the joy of ordaining in St Peter’s Basilica fifteen new priests for the diocese of Rome. I think also of all those all over the world who receive ordination to the priesthood in this season. While thanking God for the gift of these new priests at the service of the Church let us entrust them to Mary, invoking her intercession for a growing number of people who respond to Christ’s call to follow Him on the path to priesthood or consecrated life.”
Referring to his Message for Vocations Sunday this year on the theme: “Vocation in the Mystery of the Church”, the Pope said: “The Christian vocation is ongoing renewal of personal friendship with Jesus Christ which gives full meaning to life making it available for the Kingdom of God. The Church lives of this friendship, nourished by the Word and the Sacraments, holy realities entrusted especially to the ministry of the bishops, the clergy and the deacons, consecrated by the sacrament of Orders”. For this reason “the mission of the priest is irreplaceable and if in some regions there is a scarcity of clergy, we must not doubt that God will continue to call boys, youths and adults to leave all to devote themselves to preaching the Gospel and to the pastoral ministry”.
Besides the vocation to the priesthood Pope Benedict XVI mentioned other ways of following Christ: the vocation to the consecrated life - “expressed with a life which is poor, chaste and obedient and totally dedicated to God in contemplation and prayer and service of the brothers and sisters, especially the weakest and the poorest” - and also Christian matrimony “in its own right a vocation to holiness”, the example of holy parents “is the first favourable condition for the flourishing of priestly and religious vocations”. By way of conclusion the Pope invoked the intercession of Mary, Mother of the Church, “that the seeds of vocation which God sows in the heart of the faithful may mature and bear fruits of holiness in the Church and in the world”. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 8/5/2006 - righe 26, parole 396)