Pope urges prayers for vocations to priesthood

(April 30, 3012) Pope Benedict XVI asked families, communities and local parishes on Sunday to help young men discern their vocation to the priesthood. “Dear friends, pray for the Church, every local community, that they are like a garden in which all the seeds of vocation that God sows in abundance can germinate and ripen,” said the Pope in his weekly midday ‘Regina Caeli’ address to pilgrims in St. Peters Square, on the day the Catholic Church observes World Day of Prayer for Vocations. The Pope noted that “families are the first environment into which the love of God ‘breathes’, which gives inner strength even in the midst of the difficulties and trials of life.” Pope Paul VI instituted the World Day of Prayer for Vocations on April 11, 1964,, assigning it the 4th Sunday of Easter, Good Shepherd Sunday