Family Vocation Prayer
Loving God, each member of our family is a loving gift from you. You have given each of us gifts and talents so that we may enjoy life, but also so we can share with others. Generous and loving people are needed for service and leadership in our Church. Help us to know how to encourage and support each other so that we can respond generously to this need. We know that you will be with us, invite us to become the kind of people You desire us to be. Help us to trust in you and each other. Amen. + St. John Paul II 1920-2005 A.D.
Vocations
It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. John 15:16
“Our obligation is to do God’s will, and not our own.” + St. Cyprian, bishop and martyr (208-258 A.D.)
“If anyone wishes to follow me, let him deny himself. This is not a command for virgins to obey and brides to ignore, for widows and not for married women, for monks and not for married men, or for the clergy and not for the laity. No, the whole Church, the entire body, all the members in their distinct and varied functions must follow Christ.” + St. Augustine, bishop (354-430 A.D.)
“In her voyage across the ocean of this world, the Church is like a great ship being pounded by the waves of life’s different stresses. Our duty is not to abandon ship but to keep her on her course.” + St. Boniface, bishop and martyr (672-754 A.D.)
“If we wish to attain a dwelling-place in God’s kingdom we shall not reach it unless we hasten there by our good deeds.” + St. Benedict, abbot (480-547 A.D.)
“Discernment is the mother of all the virtues; everyone needs it either to guide the lives of others or to direct and reform his own life.” + Baldwin of Canterbury, bishop (unknown – 1190 A.D.)
“With God there is nothing without purpose, nothing without its meaning and reason.” + St. Irenaeus, bishop (140-203 A.D.
“The Lord urges us, who believe in him with all our heart, not to be idle or careless in any good work.” + St. Clement I, pope (unknown – 100 A.D.)
“On hearing Christ’s voice, we open the door to receive him, as it were, when we freely assent to his promptings and when we give ourselves over to doing what must be done.” + St. Bede the Venerable, priest (672-735 A.D.)
“If you are looking for the way by which you should go, take Christ, because he himself is the way: This is the way; walk in it.” + St. Thomas Aquinas, priest (1225-1274 A.D.)
“If you are looking for a goal, hold fast to Christ, because he himself is the truth, where we desire to be.” + St. Thomas Aquinas, priest (1225-1274 A.D.)
“If you are looking for a resting place, hold fast to Christ, because he himself is the life.” + St. Thomas Aquinas, priest (1225-1274 A.D.)
“The apostle Paul states that God has placed apostles, prophets and doctors in the Church. If you meditate on this you will be convinced that you too have been given your special place.” + St. John Baptist de la Salle, priest (1651-1719 A.D.)
“Christ must be the salt of your lives, so that none of you may be corrupt, since it is by your wholesomeness that you will be judged.” + St. Ignatius of Antioch, bishop and martyr (35-98 A.D.)
“Those who want to work for moral reform in the world must seek the glory of God before all else.” + St. John Leonardi, priest (1541-1609 A.D.)
“The greater the toil, the richer the reward.” + St. Ignatius of Antioch, bishop and martyr (35-98 A.D.)
“We must do all our actions in the light of discernment as if in God and in his presence.” + Baldwin of Canterbury, bishop (unknown – 1190 A.D.)
“Whenever you begin any good work you should first of all make a most pressing appeal to Christ our Lord to bring it to perfection; that he, who has honored us by counting us among his children, may never be grieved by our evil deeds.” + St. Benedict, abbot (480-547 A.D.)
“Many, many people hereabouts are not becoming Christians for one reason only: there is nobody to make them Christians.” + St. Francis Xavier, priest (1506-1552 A.D.)
“Brethren, let us follow that vocation by which we are called from life to the fountain of life.” + St. Columban, abbot (545-615 A.D.)
“Let us follow in the footsteps of the Lord.” + St. Augustine, bishop (354-430 A.D.)
“I desire nothing but to fulfill the wish of the Holy Father whatever it may be.” + Blessed John Neumann, bishop (1811-1860 A.D.)
“Let everything be done for God’s honor.” + St. Ignatius of Antioch, bishop and martyr (35-98 A.D.)
“Christ must be your breath, heart, love, life, your all.” + St. John Eudes, priest (1601-1680 A.D.)
