Please pray for vocations:
A message from Bishop Samuel Aquila
Pope Benedict XVI, in his homily at the closing
Mass for the Year for Priests, stated: “Together with the whole Church we wanted to make clear
once again that we have to ask God for this vocation. We have to beg
for workers for God’s harvest and this petition to God is, at the
same time, his own way of knocking on the hearts of young people who
consider themselves able to do what God considers them able to do.”
Throughout the Year for Priests, the Church
of Fargo prayed for their priests, seminarians, previous bishops and
me. The blessings were great! I was edified to see the calendar
posted on the refrigerators or bulletin boards in the homes of so
many of the faithful, in the breviaries of priests and seminarians,
and in the sacristies of many parishes. Many who shared in this
intercessory prayer grew in faith and trust in God, who bestows
vocations upon the Church.
I have asked that the calendar
continue in New Earth and be posted on our website. You will
notice that the intercessory prayer for vocations is now expanded to
include specific prayer days for deacons, religious orders and the
married and single life. The Father has a definite vocation for
every human being. In faith we recognize the vocation to which we
are called is bestowed by God and it helps us to become the person
he desires us to be. I encourage you to continue to go before the
Father, “the harvest master,” each day and beg for vocations to the
priesthood, diaconate and religious life. Please pray, too, that those
with vocations to the married or single life be strong witnesses of
Christ’s love for the world.
