World Day of Prayer for Vocations

About World Day of Prayer of Vocations

This special day, also liturgically known as “Good Shepherd Sunday”, invites the Church to publicly pray for and promote vocations in all its forms.  Many parishes and religious institutes commemorate this day with prayer for vocations and vocation promotion events. Considering that 73 percent of women and men professing final vows participated in one or more parish activities and 88 percent served in one or more parish ministries before entering religious life, our presence and participation in activities that mark this special day are essential.

Consider asking parishes for opportunities to speak, pray, provide bulletin inserts, prayer cards, and conversation before and after Masses, in religious education programs, RCIA, and confirmation classes on this day. 

Take photos of people praying specifically for vocations to post on social media platforms. Share your favorite prayers or songs for vocations.  It is also a great opportunity to showcase the many Chapels and sacred spaces we most often pray. Invite a group to pray with you on World Day of Prayer for Vocations or go to a college Mass to pray with the students.

Prayer is essential in our lives, regardless of our vocation. There are many ways to pray and the 2020 NRVC/CARA Study of Recent Vocations to Religious Life reported that praying with other members of the community was the most important aspect of community life. Those who entered religious life from 2003-2018 were also asked which types of prayer were most important to them. See the graph above for their responses. 

Quotes from the NRVC Focus groups of newer entrants
who entered religious life from 2003-2018

"I think it was the 80-year-old Brothers, the wisdom figures of the community that were always the first in the Chapel and the last at the dining room table. I would always try to get there before them and never could. They were always there and you could count on them." 

Holy Spirit,  stir within us the passion to promote vocations to the single and married life, consecrated life, societies of apostolic life, diocesan priesthood, and permanent diaconate. 

Inspire us daily to respond to Your call with boundless compassion, abundant generosity, and radical availability.

Help us to remember our own baptismal call to rouse us to invite the next generation to hear and respond to Your call.

Inspire parents, families, and lay ecclesial ministers to begin a conversation with young Catholics to consider how they will live lives of holiness and sacred service.

Nudge inquirers and motivate discerners to learn more about vowed and associate commitment in apostolic life, cloistered life, evangelical life, lay ecclesial ministers, missionary life, monastic life, and societies of apostolic life.  

Ignite our Church with the confident humility that there is an urgent need for all the baptized to live their vocation in solidarity with those who are poor, neglected, and marginalized.

Disrupt our comfortable lives and complacent attitudes with new ideas to respond courageously and creatively with a daily 'YES!'  Amen.

Additional Resources

Black Religious Prayer Card

Busy Persons Retreat booklet

I hope You Find prayer card

I Hope You Find prayer card in Spanish

Hearing God's Call: Thirty days of vocation discernment booklet

Listening to the Call prayer cards

Responsibilities of Members for Vocation Ministry Handout

VISION Vocation Network articles on prayer

 Resources offered by the USCCB

Resources offered by Serra International

Rosary for Vocations with the Luminous Mysteries 

Papal Messages for World Day of Prayer for Vocations

According to a proverb from the Far East, “a wise person, looking at the egg can see an eagle; looking at the seed he glimpses a great tree; looking at the sinner he glimpses a saint”.  That is how God looks at us: in each of us, he sees a certain potential, at times unbeknownst to ourselves, and throughout our lives he works tirelessly so that we can place this potential at the service of the common good. Vocation arises in this way, thanks to the art of the divine Sculptor who uses his “hands” to make us go forth from ourselves and become the masterpiece that we are called to be. The word of God, which frees us from self-absorption, is especially able to purify, enlighten and recreate us. Let us listen to that word, in order to become ever more open to the vocation that God entrusts to us! 
                 -Pope Francis,  World Day of Prayer for Vocations, 2022

2022 World Day of Prayer for Vocations Papal message

2021 World Day of Prayer for Vocations Papal message

2020 World Day of Prayer for Vocations Papal message

2019 World Day of Prayer for Vocations Papal message

2018 World Day of Prayer for Vocations Papal message

2017 World Day of Prayer for Vocations Papal message.

2016 World Day of Prayer for Vocations Papal message.

2015 World Day of Prayer for Vocations Papal message.

2014 World Day of Prayer for Vocations Papal message.

2013 World Day of Prayer for Vocations Papal message.

2012 World Day of Prayer for Vocations Papal message.

2011 World Day of Prayer for Vocations Papal message.

2010 World Day of Prayer for Vocations Papal message.

2009 World Day of Prayer for Vocations Papal message.

2008 World Day of Prayer for Vocations Papal message.

2007 World Day of Prayer for Vocations Papal message.

2006 World Day of Prayer for Vocations Papal message.