April 21, 2024

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About World Day of Prayer of Vocations

This special day, also liturgically known as “Good Shepherd Sunday”, invites the Church to publicly pray for and promote vocations in all its forms. This is now the sixtieth time that we are celebrating the World Day of Prayer for Vocations, established by Saint Paul VI in 1964, during the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council. This providential initiative seeks to assist the members of the People of God, as individuals and as communities, to respond to the call and mission that the Lord entrusts to each of us in today’s world, amid its afflictions and its hopes, its challenges, and its achievements.

The NRVC episcopal liaison, Bishop Vetter offers this video message of encouragement to pray for vocations this day. Consider asking parishes for opportunities to speak, provide bulletin inserts, prayer cards, and conversation before and after Masses, in religious education programs, RCIA, and confirmation classes on this day.

Many parishes and religious institutes commemorate this day with a prayer for vocations and vocation promotion events. Considering that 73 percent of women and men professing final vows participated in one or more parish activities and 88 percent served in one or more parish ministries before entering religious life, our presence and participation in activities that mark this special day are essential.

Take photos of people praying specifically for vocations to post on social media platforms. Share your favorite prayers or songs for vocations. It is also a great opportunity to showcase the many Chapels and sacred spaces we most often pray. Invite a group to pray with you on World Day of Prayer for Vocations or go to a college Mass to pray with the students.

Prayer is essential in our lives, regardless of our vocation. There are many ways to pray and the 2020 NRVC/CARA Study of Recent Vocations to Religious Life reported that praying with other members of the community was the most important aspect of community life. Those who entered religious life from 2003-2018 were also asked which types of prayer were most important to them. See the graph above for their responses.

Quotes from the NRVC Focus groups of newer entrants
who entered religious life from 2003-2018

"I think it was the 80-year-old Brothers, the wisdom figures of the community that were always the first in the Chapel and the last at the dining room table. I would always try to get there before them and never could. They were always there and you could count on them."

Holy Spirit, stir within us the passion to promote vocations to the single and married life, consecrated life, societies of apostolic life, diocesan priesthood, and permanent diaconate.

Inspire us daily to respond to Your call with boundless compassion, abundant generosity, and radical availability.

Help us to remember our own baptismal call to rouse us to invite the next generation to hear and respond to Your call.

Inspire parents, families, and lay ecclesial ministers to begin a conversation with young Catholics to consider how they will live lives of holiness and sacred service.

Nudge inquirers and motivate discerners to learn more about vowed and associate commitment in apostolic life, cloistered life, evangelical life, lay ecclesial ministers, missionary life, monastic life, and societies of apostolic life.

Ignite our Church with the confident humility that there is an urgent need for all the baptized to live their vocation in solidarity with those who are poor, neglected, and marginalized.

Disrupt our comfortable lives and complacent attitudes with new ideas to respond courageously and creatively with a daily 'YES!' Amen.

Additional Resources

Black Religious Prayer Card

Busy Persons Retreat booklet

I hope You Find prayer card

I Hope You Find prayer card in Spanish

Hearing God's Call: Thirty days of vocation discernment booklet

Listening to the Call prayer cards

Responsibilities of Members for Vocation Ministry Handout

VISION Vocation Network articles on prayer

Resources offered by the USCCB

Resources offered by Serra International

Rosary for Vocations with the Luminous Mysteries

Papal Messages for World Day of Prayer for Vocations

This year I would ask you, in your reflection and prayer, to take as your guide the theme “Vocation: Grace and Mission”. In the course of our lives, this call, which is part of the fiber of our being and the secret of our happiness, comes to us by the work of the Holy Spirit in ever new ways. It enlightens our minds, strengthens our wills, fills us with amazement and sets our hearts afire. God’s call, we said, includes a “sending”. There is no vocation without mission. There is no happiness and full self-realization unless we offer others the new life that we have found. God’s call to love is an experience that does not allow us to remain silent. Saint Paul says, “Woe to me if I do not proclaim the gospel!” (1 Cor 9:16).
-Pope Francis, World Day of Prayer for Vocations, 2023

2023 World Day of Prayer for Vocations Papal message

2022 World Day of Prayer for Vocations Papal message

2021 World Day of Prayer for Vocations Papal message

2020 World Day of Prayer for Vocations Papal message

2019 World Day of Prayer for Vocations Papal message

2018 World Day of Prayer for Vocations Papal message

2017 World Day of Prayer for Vocations Papal message.

2016 World Day of Prayer for Vocations Papal message.

2015 World Day of Prayer for Vocations Papal message.

2014 World Day of Prayer for Vocations Papal message.

2013 World Day of Prayer for Vocations Papal message.

2012 World Day of Prayer for Vocations Papal message.