World Day of Prayer for Vocations

Today is both Good Shepherd Sunday (see the Liturgical Readings), as well as the 47th World Day of Prayer for Vocations.

From Pope Benedict's special message for today:

"God's free and gracious initiative encounters and challenges the human responsibility of all those who accept his invitation to become, through their own witness, the instruments of his divine call."

There is also a brand new website launched today by the U.S. Bishops: For Your Vocation. Looks like a helpful initiative!

It was neat (and fitting) that myself and two siblings portrayed saints in first person for a Religious Education "Family Day" this morning. I was St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, patroness of the Catholic Education System in America, and the first American-born Saint to be canonized.

Let us pray for many holy vocations: to matrimony, to priesthood, and to consecrated life, that we may build the Kingdom with all that we are!

Tomorrow

I will be joined by a group of delightful young ladies going with me to the Institute on Religious Life. Say a little prayer for all the religious there (from around the U.S.!) and the discerning youth, will you?