| International News

In his message for the 44th World Day of Prayer for Vocations, Pope Benedict pointed to the importance of education of the laity in building authentic and prayerful communion.

“In order to foster vocations,” the pope said, “it is important that pastoral activity be attentive to the mystery of the church as communion.”

“Whoever lives in an ecclesial community that is harmonious, co-responsible and conscientious certainly learns more easily to discern the call of the Lord,” the pope said in the message for the April 29 observance that was dated Feb. 10.

The theme of this year’s World Day of Prayer for Vocations is “the vocation to the service of the church as communion.”

Pope Benedict stressed that the church’s mission is “founded on an intimate and faithful communion with God.”

God has “always chosen some individuals to work with him in a more direct way, in order to accomplish his plan of salvation,” the pope said.

He pointed to the fisherman in Galilee that “accepted his pressing invitation” to “become fishers of men,” to Abraham “to form a great nation,” to Moses “to free Israel from the slavery of Egypt” and to the Old Testament prophets “to defend and keep alive the covenant with his people.”

In the apostles, the pope added, Jesus found those “to share his mission” and to entrust in them “the duty of perpetuating the memorial of his death and resurrection until his glorious return at the end of time.”

The “intense communion” with God becomes the soil in which vocations grow, Pope Benedict said. “The heart of the believer, filled with divine love, is moved to dedicate itself wholly to the cause of the kingdom,” he said.

He stressed that the pastoral efforts of the church need to be directed to educating the faithful about “the mystery of the church as communion.”

“The care of vocations,” he said, “demands a constant education for listening to the voice of God.”

He called upon bishops and priests to promote “communion in harmony with every other church vocation and service,” and that “every ministry and charism be directed to full communion.”

The pope said that “faithful listening” to the call to service “can only take place in a climate of intimate communion with God which is realized principally in prayer.”

“We must implore the gift of vocations,” he said, “by praying untiringly and together to the Lord of the harvest” in order for the church to be able to “send out laborers into his harvest,” quoting the Gospel of Matthew (9:38).

He stressed that the Eucharist, as “the center of every Christian community … the source and summit of the life of the church,” is key in the process of discernment.

“Vocations to the priesthood and to other ministries and services flourish within the people of God wherever there are those in whom Christ can be seen through his word, in the sacraments and especially in the Eucharist,” Pope Benedict said. “This is so because,” he added, quoting from his encyclical Deus caritas est, “in the church’s liturgy, in her prayer, in the living community of believers, we experience the love of God, we perceive his presence and we thus learn to recognize that presence in our daily lives.”

He prayed that the virgin Mary, “who promptly answered the call of the father,” intercede so that the church is not without “servants of divine joy, priests who in communion with their bishops announce the gospel faithfully and celebrate the sacraments, take care of the people of God and are ready to evangelize all humanity.”

“May she ensure,” the pope said, “an increase in the number of consecrated persons, who go against the current, living the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience, and give witness in a prophetic way of Christ and his liberating message of salvation.”