VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Each Christian has a vocation to answer God’s love and to share that love with others, Pope Francis mentioned.

“The Lord’s name is grace, full reward and on the identical time a dedication to carry the Gospel to others,” the pope wrote in his message for the World Day of Prayer for Vocations, which was to be marked April 30 in most dioceses.

“Vocation: Grace and Mission” was the theme the pope selected for the 2023 celebration.

The pope’s message was launched on the Vatican April 26 with a information convention led by Cardinal Lazarus You Heung-sik, prefect of the Dicastery for Clergy.

The message, the cardinal mentioned, emphasizes {that a} vocation is “the reward of self,” a name that’s “widespread to all Christians: all are referred to as to be on the entrance line, to do their half in order that the earth might turn out to be the widespread house through which people and peoples reside collectively as brothers and sisters, beneath the gaze of the one Father.”

In his message, Pope Francis mentioned that, “led by the Spirit, Christians are challenged to answer existential peripheries and human dramas, ever aware that the mission is God’s work.”

The mission, he mentioned, “will not be carried out by us alone, however at all times in ecclesial communion, along with our brothers and sisters, and beneath the steering of the church’s pastors.”

The multiplicity of vocations, presents and tasks within the church, he mentioned, at all times has been a part of “God’s dream: that we must always reside with him in a communion of affection.”

Within the church, and within the pope’s message, “vocation” referred to extra than simply the decision to priesthood or consecrated spiritual life.

In truth, the pope wrote, “our widespread vocation to offer ourselves in love develops and finds concrete expression within the lifetime of lay women and men, dedicated to elevating a household as a small home church and dealing as a leaven of the Gospel to resume the totally different sectors of society; within the testimony of consecrated ladies and men who’re fully dedicated to God for the sake of their brothers and sisters as a prophetic signal of the dominion of God; in ordained ministers — deacons, monks and bishops — positioned on the service of preaching, prayer and fostering the communion of the holy folks of God.”

The “true nature and richness” of every of these vocations, he mentioned, is revealed and is sensible solely in relation to the others throughout the group of the church.

“Seen on this mild,” the pope mentioned, “the church is a vocational ‘symphony’ with each vocation united but distinct, in concord and joined collectively in ‘going forth’ to radiate all through the world the brand new lifetime of the dominion of God.”

The vocation God offers to every Christian will not be a command or imposition, Pope Francis mentioned, however a person name to answer God’s love with the presents, skills and goals that every particular person has.

“In the midst of our lives,” he mentioned, “this name, which is a part of the fiber of our being and the key of our happiness, involves us by the work of the Holy Spirit in ever new methods. It enlightens our minds, strengthens our wills, fills us with amazement and units our hearts afire.”

Cardinal You Heung-sik, presenting the pope’s message, informed reporters, “God, in truth, has a ‘dream’ that he needs to comprehend for us and with us, a undertaking that he offers us in order that, accepting it and realizing it with all freedom, we are able to discover the genuine that means of our existence, the conclusion of our humanity, but additionally the mission by way of which we are able to contribute to the development of a extra fraternal, extra simply and extra supportive world, the anticipation and realization of the dominion of God.”

Generally the decision comes “in fully surprising methods,” Pope Francis wrote, recounting how, for him, the decision got here on “Sept. 21, 1953, as I used to be on my solution to an annual faculty celebration, (and) I used to be led to cease by a church and go to confession.”

“That day modified my life and left a mark that has endured to the current day,” the pope wrote.

“The reward of vocation is sort of a divine seed that springs up within the soil of our existence, opens our hearts to God and to others, in order that we are able to share with them the treasure we ourselves have discovered,” the pope mentioned.

The fundamental method vocation works, he wrote, is: “God calls us in love and we, in gratitude, reply to him in love. We understand that we’re beloved little children of the one Father, and we come to see ourselves as brothers and sisters of each other.”

Cardinal You Heung-sik informed reporters that Pope Francis “actually offers a superb instance” of what a Christian vocation is, “not simply as a bishop or priest,” however as an individual who has encountered Jesus and joyfully shares the religion with others.

Copyright © 2023 Catholic Information Service/U.S. Convention of Catholic Bishops

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