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Writer's pictureProfiles in Catholicism
Aug 27, 202126 min read

Religious Vocations

Updated: Sep 14, 2021



A Message from the Editor


We feature an article by Pope Francis on why religious vocations have been reducing There are many perishes with out a priest and the Covid-19 pandemic has claimed more than 1000 deaths of Catholic religious. This challenges has affected many religions


I ask all of our readers to say Pope Francis’s prayer for vocations ;


Holy and Provident Father, You are the Lord of the vineyard and the harvest and You give each a just reward for their work. In Your design of love, You call men and women to work with You for the salvation of the world.


We thank You for Jesus Christ, Your living Word, who has redeemed us from our sins and is among us to assist us in our poverty. Guide the flock to which You have promised possession of the Kingdom.


Send new workers into Your harvest and set in the hearts of Pastors faithfulness to Your plan of salvation, perseverance in their vocation and holiness of life.


Christ Jesus, who on the shores of the Sea of Galilee called the Apostles and made them the foundation of the Church and bearers of Your Gospel, in our day sustain Your people on their journey. Give courage to those whom You call to follow You in the priesthood and the consecrated life, so that they may enrich God’s field with the wisdom of Your Word. Make them docile instruments of Your love in everyday service of their brothers and sisters.


Spirit of holiness, who pours out Your gifts on all believers and especially on those called to be Christ’s ministers, help young people to discover the beauty of the divine call. Teach them the true way of prayer, which is nourished by the Word of God. Help them to read the signs of the times so as to be faithful interpreters of Your gospel and bearers of salvation.


Mary, Virgin who listened and Virgin of the Word made flesh in your womb, help us to be open to the Word of the Lord so that having been welcomed and meditated on, it may grow in our hearts. Help us to live like you the beatitudes of believers and to dedicate ourselves with unceasing charity to evangelizing all those who seek your Son.


Grant that we may serve every person, becoming servants of the Word we have heard, so that remaining faithful to it we may find our happiness living it.


A Quote to Remember


“The common good of men stands in this, not only that they live, but that they live well, in righteousness and holiness, and consequently in true happiness. And for the attainment hereunto, God has ordained and disposed all callings, and in his providence designed the persons to bear them.”

by Thomas Merton


Saint Francis's Vocation Prayer:


Most High, Glorious God, enlighten the darkness of our minds. Give us a right faith, a firm hope and a perfect charity, so that we may always and in all things act according to Your Holy Will. Amen. by Saint Francis of Assisi

Vocation Prayer

O Father, you desire all of us to be happy.

Stir up the grace of a religious vocation in the hearts

of many men and women.

Grant to them the willingness and generosity

to give of themselves, their lives, their time and their

talents to the service of Jesus Christ, Your Son, Our Lord and

Savior, and to His Holy Church.

May more men and women go forth as priests, deacons,

brothers and sisters to bring the truths of our Catholic faith

to all others so that soon they, too, may know You better

and love You more...

and serving You, be truly happy. Amen.

by USCCB

Prayer for the living and the dead


Lord we think and pray for those we loved and are lost to us,

they rest in eternal peace and are remembered in our hearts and minds.

They bravely fought to cling to life Lord but Covid took them away

yet their spirit lives on.


Their families and friends miss them greatly, we pray for them.

Lord you are eternal truth and goodness, the power of love.

May the living find the comfort of your love, and be strong and brave,

May those who care for them in this time of loss and grief be strong

and Lord, let them make You present by acts of kindness, love and care.. Amen

by Father Shay Cullen Profiles in Catholicism



Prayer for Mothers we have lost

Lord they gave us life and love and nurtured us in their arms and warm embrace,

They gave us inspiration, education, and a life of value and of grace.

A Mother’s love is the strength of their children’s life,

From them comes resilience to overcome challenge, pain and strife.

We have their wisdom, knowledge, and all they taught us to understand and know,

In their memory we cherish the life of goodness they shared with us

and like a river our love for them will ever flow.

Amen

by Father Shay Cullen Profiles in Catholicism



Dear God, Please keep Officer Ella French into your infinite love and care, help her family and friends grieve, hold her in their memory, and serve a model of compassion and care for everyone. by Sarah Lyon Profiles in Catholicism


Prayer for Yemen


All merciful God, take and hold the people of Yemen, especially the children and other vulnerable people. Sustain the people of this war-torn land with your hope. Turn the hearts of aggressors to thoughts of peace. Stir the conscience of the international community, and enable international leaders to work for peace. Let none of us forget our brothers and sisters who struggle and suffer in a distant land ,but help all of us to be for each other your true and generous children who know that your grace always outpaces our failures, and who acknowledge you the source of all our good who are our one God forever and ever.| Amen| by Father Louis Cameli Profiles in Catholicism


Prayer for Those Who Have Died in Haiti from the Earthquake

Dear God, Please welcome all those who have died in the Haiti earthquake into your eternal loving embrace and comfort their families and friends. Also, please inspire other counties to invest in programs in Haiti which will end their poverty. by Gordon Nary Profiles in Catholicism


A Prayer for the people of Afghanistan:


“Who can Help us Hope and, Hoping, Help us?!”


Oh Lord, no matter how many leave, nor how slowly they go, we know that some will not make the paper trail to where they want to be and yet this is our country and yet we cannot live here or live elsewhere and so we live a non-livingness – longing for life! We do not know where to go, where help will come from, whether we and our families will still be alive when it comes, who can stop the paperwork trail which, like an ever-lengthening rope, runs out and out as if it will never be gathered in and so we are left unravelled.


Oh Lord, you have seen the babies thrown over the wire and into the

arms of soldiers, scarred, outwardly as well as inwardly, tearing them out of our hearts, that they may find a home to begin again without us, planted on fresh soil, giving us hope of a life beyond war and endless worries, weary as we are with conflict, we long for their future to be a grace beyond gratitude in places unknown to us, but visited, day in and day out, on the flightpath of our prayers.


Oh Lord, this is our home, this is the place where we began and grew, through and amidst trial after trial, threading a life between those who came and those who want to resist the coming of others, between those who want change and those who want to resist change, even choose what changes, and yet we cannot all go back without losing many good gifts of the present, bringing a mixture of what helps and what disfigures human life.


Oh Lord, where do we begin? To whom do we turn? You alone

are present to us all, you alone who are not alone, you who are present with all your angels and saints, saintly Mother and the mystery of loves loving to bring new life to old and worn-out hearts,

like you did with Joseph, bringing him into the history of salvation who would, otherwise, have slipped like so many of us through time, unnoticed, called but hidden, helpful but wholly unknown.


Oh Lord, how many lives are crushed within and without and how many will remain, suffering in the course of a hidden life, who knows what exactly, maybe hidden from the news and the widespread eyes of a few willing to share, to shape a good beyond human effort, depending on you, drawing on the mysteries of your life and death, transforming a slow crucifixion into an unbelievable

resurrection of hope and help and a future fit for us.


But we are frail, imperfect men and women, often married with children, living families, living in fear, along with many others as the armies of the world withdraw from us, whether or not they leave with those of us who helped during their presence in our midst or abandon us to whatever awaits, imagined and dreaded, real or imagined, leaving with whatever is our own and what may well belong to others, too, which could be even more ours than theirs.


You know, even more than we do, not all that happens is good, not all that we do is good, but who but you can look at each person and see what is good: the good which remains in us, the good to be done today, the good of forgiveness for what was not good yesterday or even today – but not everyone has the power to call an end to arms, retaliation or revenge, but you must know that place within each of us where the good dwells and seeks to swell and grow.


Can war and counter-wars be the last word for our country? Are there not humanitarian wells, deep within each heart, or are they buried with our relatives and friends, our daily struggles and our struggling hopes? Let the root of religion broaden to embrace all.

Not everyone recognizes the possibility of peace or can act, equally, to bring it about, yet all of us can do a neighbourly good, a kindness which joins those apart together and starts a spreading friendliness.


Oh Lord, we cannot, like you, see the good in everyone, nor can we live on evaporated dreams, destroyed hopes, suspicions and betrayals; but our hope in you is a life-saving loving that pulls us out of the sea-scraped scrambling from stone to stone and draws us together with those who want to take up where we and others have left off and continue, to communicate, to carry on with the ordinary,

day to day living of your life-giving love upon which we thrive.


Oh Lord, we are at the brink of losing the thread of life that weaves us all together, so frail and fraught with problems, so full of tension and close to snapping, so suspending ordinary life that it is impossible to imagine an end to hostilities, brutalities and death; and yet, as after the pouring rain, the lightning and gunfire, the storms and unrest, we find that fruits have appeared and grown and are ready for reaping – so may we find that life is still full of promise.


Oh Lord forgive our desperate prayers and questioning – but if you are God and your heart is opened through the lance that pierced the side of your Son, and all your wounds let us in, then let our cries come to you, let them draw, like puss, the depths of our hopeless helplessness and go, even deeper, beyond the darkness and let it draw from you a newness that cannot but be the outpouring of your help: the impossible brightness of your dawning presence among us!


Francis Etheredge, author of the forthcoming:

Within Reach of You: A Book of Prose and Prayers: https://enroutebooksandmedia.com/withinreachofyou/; and see Volume I, The Prayerful Kiss, and Volume II, Honest Rust and Gold as well.


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