On this World Day of Prayer Vocations–called Good Shepherd Sunday–the Church has requested the faithful to pray for an increase in vocations. And so, let us ask the Lord, our Gentle Shepherd, to send quality young men and women from among our ranks to become workers in the vineyard.

Gentle Shepherd

Loving God,

You speak to us and nourish us
through the life of this Church
community.

In the name of Jesus, we ask you to
send your Spirit to us so that men and
women among us, young and old, will
respond to your call to service and
leadership in the Church. We pray
especially, in our day, for those who
hear your invitation to be a priest,
sister, or brother.

May those who are opening their
hearts and minds to your call be
encouraged and strengthened
through our enthusiasm in your service.
Amen.

And for those of us who are currently discerning where the Lord may be calling us to serve the Church, a personal prayer:

Article 4. The Fourth Commandment (cont’d)

In Brief

Holy Family

(2247) “Honor your father and your mother” (Deut 5:16; Mk 7:10).

(2248) According to the fourth commandment, God has willed that, after him, we should honor our parents and those whom he has vested with authority for our good.

(2249) The conjugal community is established upon the covenant and consent of the spouses. Marriage and family are ordered to the good of the spouses, to the procreation and the education of children.

(2250) “The well-being of the individual person and of both human and Christian society is closely bound up with the healthy state of conjugal and family life” (GS 47 § 1).

(2251) Children owe their parents respect, gratitude, just obedience, and assistance. Filial respect fosters harmony in all of family life.

(2252) Parents have the first responsibility for the education of their children in the faith, prayer, and all the virtues. They have the duty to provide as far as possible for the physical and spiritual needs of their children.

(2253) Parents should respect and encourage their children’s vocations. They should remember and teach that the first calling of the Christian is to follow Jesus.

Source: USCCB

Article 4. The Fourth Commandment

III. The Duties of Family Members

The duties of parents (cont’d)

Nativity of our Lord

(2226) Education in the faith by the parents should begin in the child’s earliest years. This already happens when family members help one another to grow in faith by the witness of a Christian life in keeping with the Gospel. Family catechesis precedes, accompanies, and enriches other forms of instruction in the faith. Parents have the mission of teaching their children to pray and to discover their vocation as children of God. The parish is the Eucharistic community and the heart of the liturgical life of Christian families; it is a privileged place for the catechesis of children and parents.

(2227) Children in turn contribute to the growth in holiness of their parents. Each and everyone should be generous and tireless in forgiving one another for offenses, quarrels, injustices, and neglect. Mutual affection suggests this. The charity of Christ demands it.

(2228) Parents’ respect and affection are expressed by the care and attention they devote to bringing up their young children and providing for their physical and spiritual needs. As the children grow up, the same respect and devotion lead parents to educate them in the right use of their reason and freedom.

Catholic Ordination

Article 6. The Sacrament of Holy Orders

VII. The Effects of the Sacrament of Holy Orders

The grace of the Holy Spirit (cont’d)

(1589) Before the grandeur of the priestly grace and office, the holy doctors felt an urgent call to conversion in order to conform their whole lives to him whose sacrament had made them ministers. Thus St. Gregory of Nazianzus, as a very young priest, exclaimed:

We must begin by purifying ourselves before purifying others; we must be instructed to be able to instruct, become light to illuminate, draw close to God to bring him close to others, be sanctified to sanctify, lead by the hand and counsel prudently. I know whose ministers we are, where we find ourselves and to where we strive. I know God’s greatness and man’s weakness, but also his potential. [Who then is the priest? He is] the defender of truth, who stands with angels, gives glory with archangels, causes sacrifices to rise to the altar on high, shares Christ’s priesthood, refashions creation, restores it in God’s image, recreates it for the world on high and, even greater, is divinized and divinizes.

And the holy Curé of Ars: “The priest continues the work of redemption on earth. . . . If we really understood the priest on earth, we would die not of fright but of love. . . . The Priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus.”

Pope Benedict XVI ordains a priest in Rome | Credit: Getty Images

Article 6. The Sacrament of Holy Orders

III. The Three Degrees of the Sacrament of Holy Orders

Episcopal ordination—fullness of the sacrament of Holy Orders (cont’d)

(1561) The above considerations explain why the Eucharist celebrated by the bishop has a quite special significance as an expression of the Church gathered around the altar, with the one who represents Christ, the Good Shepherd and Head of his Church, presiding.

The ordination of priests—co-workers of the bishops

(1562) “Christ, whom the Father hallowed and sent into the world, has, through his apostles, made their successors, the bishops namely, sharers in his consecration and mission; and these, in their turn, duly entrusted in varying degrees various members of the Church with the office of their ministry.” “The function of the bishops’ ministry was handed over in a subordinate degree to priests so that they might be appointed in the order of the priesthood and be co-workers of the episcopal order for the proper fulfillment of the apostolic mission that had been entrusted to it by Christ.”

(1563) “Because it is joined with the episcopal order the office of priests shares in the authority by which Christ himself builds up and sanctifies and rules his Body. Hence the priesthood of priests, while presupposing the sacraments of initiation, is nevertheless conferred by its own particular sacrament. Through that sacrament priests by the anointing of the Holy Spirit are signed with a special character and so are configured to Christ the priest in such a way that they are able to act in the person of Christ the head.”