Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Altötting (Agenzia Fides) - In the early evening on Monday 11 September Pope Benedict XVI presided sung Vespers in the Basilica dedicated to St Anne in Altötting together with the men and women Religious and seminarians of Bavaria and members of the Pontifical Work for Vocations. “We have come together to ask ourselves about a vocation at the service of Jesus Christ” the Pope said in his homily. “For each of us the Lord has his own project, he calls each of us by name. Our task then is to become people who listen, who hear his call, ready to follow Him with courage and fidelity and at the end found to be trustworthy servants who have put to good use the gift received”.
The Pope then reflected on the Gospel: “the Lord seeks workers for his harvest...Yes God’s harvest is great and it is waiting for workers: in the so called third world- in Latin America, in Africa, in Asia - people await heralds carrying the Gospel of peace, the message of God made man. But also in the so-called West, here in Germany, and in the vast area of Russia it is true the harvest could be plenty. However there is a scarcity of people willing work for God’s harvest”. The Pope then prayed: “O Lord, see the tribulation of this hour and the need for messengers of the Gospel, of your witnesses, of men and women to show the way to "life in abundance"! Look at the world and have compassion also in our day! Look at the world and send workers for the harvest!”.
To describe the mission of priests and men and women religious the Holy Father used an expression of St Mark the evangelist who says with regard to the calling of the Twelve apostles: " and he appointed twelve; they were to be with Him and to be sent out to proclaim the message" (Mk 3, 14). The Holy Father explained: “To be with Him and also, as people who are sent, on their way to others- these two things go together, they are the essence of the spiritual vocation, of the priesthood. Being with Him and being sent- the two things are inseparable. Only one who is "with Him" learns to know Him and can truly announce Him. And those who are with Him cannot keep what they have found for themselves they feel compelled to share it with others”.
This “being with Him” is experienced first and foremost in daily Mass, “celebrated always with profound inward participation”, then in the Liturgy of the Hours when “we pray as men and women who need to speak with God, but we include all other men and women who have no time or opportunity for this prayer”. The Pope then mentioned spiritual reading of Sacred Scripture, not only to “decipher and explain words of the past but in order to find the word of comfort the Lord has for me, the word with which he wants to speak to me”. An essential manner of being with the Lord is Eucharistic Adoration: “in the Sacred Host He, the real treasure, is present, there we can always reach Him. Only by adoring this presence we learn to truly receive Him - we learn to communicate with Him, we learn this in the celebration of the Eucharist”.
At the end of the homily the Pope said: “Let us love being with the Lord! There we can speak with him about everything. We can offer him our petitions, our concerns, our troubles. Our joys. Our gratitude, our disappointments, our needs and our aspirations.”. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 12/9/2006 - righe 39, parole 568)
