The president of the Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), Bishop Earl A. Boyea, asked to pray for vocations, within the framework of National Vocations Awareness Week (NVAW).
The event, which will take place November 3-9, is a celebration of the Church in the United States dedicated to promoting vocations to the priesthood, diaconate and consecrated life through prayer and education in dioceses, parishes and schools.
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“Lord, may we all know and respond to your call. Let us pray with gratitude for those who seek and respond to their vocation,” said Bishop Boyea of Lansing, in a statement on October 29.
In his message, the prelate referred to the recent massive Eucharistic procession held during the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis, which brought together more than 55,000 faithful in July.
“The joy and enthusiasm was palpable as thousands of seminarians, religious, deacons, priests, bishops and cardinals processed, bearing witness to the world that Jesus is present in the Eucharist, affirming their own vocations. “There were people crying and hugging each other as they experienced this historic moment in the life of our church,” he said.
The bishop also hopes that, through the National Eucharistic Revival and the Congress, “a generous harvest of vocations will be generated.”
“We pray with gratitude for those who seek and respond in their daily lives to their vocation, whether as husbands, wives, parents, priests and other ordained ministers, and consecrated persons,” said Bishop Boyea.
In this context, he recalled that during this National Vocational Awareness Week, we will celebrate “in a special way the men and women who offer their lives to God through a life of service to the Church, ‘sowing seeds of hope and revealing to all the beauty of the kingdom of God’”, as Pope Francis indicated in his message for the World Day of Prayer for Vocations.
Since 1976, the U.S. bishops have designated the 28th Sunday of the liturgical year as an opportunity to renew their prayerful support for those discerning a vocation. In 2014, the commemoration of National Vocational Awareness Week was moved to the first week of November to better involve Catholic educational institutions in efforts to increase awareness of vocations.
Resources on Vocational Awareness Week are available on the USCCB website, also in Spanish.
Diego Lopez Marina
I was born in 1991. I have a degree in Communication Sciences. Since 2015 I have worked as a digital journalist. I started my career at the Peruvian newspaper El Comercio. In 2016, I started as an editor at ACI Prensa and I have worked as a web editor since 2018. Starting in 2024, I write the newsletter for social media. I specialize in Catholic news focused on the defense of life and family, international politics, technology, popular culture and the Vatican.