November 5, 2024 at 10:33 a.m.
PRAYERS OF ‘GRATITUDE’
WASHINGTON — As the U.S. Catholic Church commemorates National Vocation Awareness Week from Nov. 3-9, the faithful are being encouraged to "pray with gratitude" for those who respond to their vocation.
Each year, dioceses, parishes and schools take the opportunity to raise awareness for vocations, particularly those who are discerning a vocation to the priesthood or consecrated life.
"We pray with gratitude for those who seek and respond in their daily lives to their vocation, whether that be as husbands, wives, parents, priests and other ordained ministers, and consecrated persons," Bishop Earl A. Boyea of Lansing, Mich., said in a message issued Oct. 29.
Bishop Boyea, who serves as chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations, took special note of this July's historic National Eucharistic Congress, tying it into the upcoming vocations commemoration. The congress was the centerpiece of a three-year National Eucharistic Revival initiated by the bishops in 2021.
"Joy and enthusiasm were palpable as thousands of seminarians, religious, deacons, priests, bishops and cardinals processed witnessing to the world that Jesus is present in the Eucharist, affirming their own vocations. There were people in tears who embraced each other as they experienced this historic moment in the life of our church in the United States," he said.
"We hope and pray the Eucharistic Revival and also this summer's National Eucharistic Congress yield a generous harvest of vocations," he added, reflecting on the Eucharistic procession held during the congress that saw over 50,000 thousand people gather in Indianapolis.
Beginning in 1976, the U.S. bishops designated the 28th Sunday of the liturgical year as an opportunity for the Catholic Church in the United States to renew its prayerful support for those discerning an ecclesial vocation. In 2014, the commemoration of National Vocation Awareness Week in the United States was moved to the first week of November to better engage Catholic educational institutions in the efforts to raise awareness for vocations.
"During National Vocation Awareness Week," Bishop Boyea said, "we celebrate in a special way, the men and women who offer their lives to God through a life of service to the Church, 'sowing seeds of hope and revealing to all the beauty of God's kingdom'" as the Pope Francis said in his message for World Day of Prayer for Vocations, which was April 21.
Resources on Vocation Awareness Week are available in English and Spanish on the USCCB's website, www.usccb.org.
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