National Vocations Awareness Week 2019

2 August 2019

 

This video was prepared as part of the Diocese of Parramatta’s initiative for National Vocations Awareness Week, which is held across Australia on 4 – 11 August.

The video focuses on Pope Francis’ message for the 56th World Day of Prayer for Vocations, which has a theme of “The courage to take a risk for God’s promise.”

In his message, Pope Francis said, “the Lord’s call is not an intrusion of God in our freedom; it is not a ‘cage’ or a burden to be borne. On the contrary, it is the loving initiative whereby God encounters us and invites us to be part of a great undertaking. He opens before our eyes the horizon of a greater sea and an abundant catch.

And yet, there can be no greater joy than to risk one’s life for the Lord! I would like to say this especially to you, the young. Do not be deaf to the Lord’s call. If he calls you to follow this path, do not pull your oars into the boat, but trust him. Do not yield to fear, which paralyses us before the great heights to which the Lord points us. Always remember that to those who leave their nets and boat behind, and follow him, the Lord promises the joy of a new life that can fill our hearts and enliven our journey.

“As was made clear several times during the World Youth Day in Panama, we should always look to Mary. Also in the story of this young woman, vocation was both a promise and a risk. Her mission was not easy, yet she did not allow fear to prevail. “It was the ‘yes’ of someone prepared to be committed, someone willing to take a risk, ready to stake everything she had, with no more security than the certainty of knowing that she was the bearer of a promise. I ask each one of you: Do you see yourselves as bearers of a promise? What promise do I bear within my heart to take forward? Mary’s would undoubtedly be a difficult mission, but the challenges that lay ahead were no reason to say ‘no’. Things would get complicated, of course, but not in the same way as happens when cowardice paralyses us because things are not clear or sure in advance” (Vigil with Young People, Panama, 26 January 2019).

For more information about Vocations in the Diocese of Parramatta, please visit: www.parracatholic.org/vocations/

 

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