Editor Notice: For the entire textual content of Pope Francis’ message in English click on right here.

For the entire textual content of Pope Francis’ message in Spanish click on right here.

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 deliver 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 known as to be on the entrance line, to do their half in order that the earth might change into the widespread house during which people and peoples reside collectively as brothers and sisters, below 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 acutely aware that the mission is God’s work.”

The mission, he mentioned, “just isn’t carried out by us alone, however at all times in ecclesial communion, along with our brothers and sisters, and below the steerage 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 reality, the pope wrote, “our widespread vocation to provide 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 completely 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 smart solely in relation to the others inside the group of the church.

“Considered on this gentle,” 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 just isn’t a command or imposition, Pope Francis mentioned, however a person name to answer God’s love with the presents, skills and desires that every particular person has.

“In the middle 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, actually, has a ‘dream’ that he needs to appreciate for us and with us, a mission 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 belief 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.”

Typically 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 method to an annual college 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 kids 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 “really 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.

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