Prayer of Saint John Paul II to the Virgin Mary for the increase of vocations

In the framework of the anniversary of the birth of Saint John Paul II this May 18, we share a prayer from the “Pilgrim Pope” dedicated to the Virgin Mary, to ask for the increase and sanctity of vocations in the Church.

According to the website of the Vaticanthe prayer was composed on the occasion of the pastoral visit of the remembered Pontiff to Bologna, northern Italy, on April 18, 1982.

That day spoke a few words to the seminarians in the Sanctuary of Saint Luke, where it is said that there is an image of the Virgin that was painted by the Evangelist.

John Paul II told them that “every priestly or religious vocation is a great gift from God, a privilege, which honors those ‘called’ and their parents and manifests the special predilection of God.”

“Pray that the Lord deigns to grant you the grace to make a priestly or religious vocation flourish in your home, in your ‘domestic Church’,” he emphasized.

Later he uttered a beautiful marian prayer, in which the scarcity of vocations among the people of God was highlighted, but with trust always placed in her who is the Mother and help of the Church. Below is the prayer:

Oh Mother, Mother of God, Mother of the Church,
in this hour so significant for us
We are one heart and one soul: like Peter, the Apostles, the brothers
united in prayer, with you, in the Cenacle (cf. Acts 1:14).

We trust you with our life,
to you, who have accepted the Word of God with absolute fidelity
and you have consecrated yourself to his plan of salvation and grace,
adhering with total docility to the action of the Holy Spirit;
to you, who received the mission from your Son
to welcome and guard the disciple whom he loved (cf. Jn 20:26);
We repeat to you, each and every one, “totus tuus ego sum”,
for you to assume our consecration
and join them to Jesus and yours
as an offering to God the Father, for the life of the world.

In this your abode, which guards our City and the Region
of which you have been a garrison and decorum for centuries,
We beg you to look at the poverty of your children
as you did in Cana, when you took heart
the situation of that family.
Today, the greatest poverty of this family of yours
It is that of priestly, diaconal, religious and missionary vocations.

Reach out, then, with your “supplicating omnipotence“
the hearts of many of our brothers
so that they hear, understand, respond to the voice of the Lord.
Repeat to them, in the depths of their conscience, the invitation made to the servants in Cana:
Do everything that Jesus will tell you (cf. Jn 2:5).
We will be Ministers of God and the Church,
dedicated to evangelize, sanctify, shepherd our brothers:
teach us and give us the attitudes of the good shepherd;
feeds and increases our apostolic dedication;
always strengthens and regenerates our love for those who suffer;
illuminates and enlivens our purpose of virginity for the Kingdom of Heaven;
instills and preserves in us the sense of fraternity and communion.

With our lives we entrust you, oh our Mother,
those of our parents and relatives
those of the brothers whom we will reach with our ministry,
so that your maternal care
always precede each of our steps towards them
and constantly guiding the path towards the Homeland
who has prepared us with his Redemption,
Christ, your Son and our Lord. Amen.