"Yes," I replied, "when our front rooms are tidy enough to host the cross."
I know: I am bad. The cluttered state of my home should not preclude extra family prayer - and, typically, does not. However, I truly felt that the honor of hosting the Vocations Cross merited carving out a beautiful space in our home to place the cross and gather for family prayer. Thus, I was hoping that we might all be motivated to buckle down and get to better decluttering, deep cleaning, and, then, maintaining the front rooms, after which, we could "celebrate" by requesting to host the cross.
Of course, that was my plan, not His.
That became obvious when, one recent day, our phone rang and, on the other end, the Vocation Cross Coordinator for our parish said hello and asked if my family might be willing to host our collaborative's cross soon. I laughed and told her that I was aware of the need for families to host the cross, wanted my family to do so, but had been holding out on it until our home was in a better physical state. That being said, spiritual states are far more important than physical ones, so, mess or not, we'd be happy to accept her invitation.
So it was that - with total excitement - my children accepted our collaborative's Vocation Cross on Father's Day, which, this year, coincided with the Feast of Corpus Christi -- a perfect day to begin an extra focus on praying for vocations.
My family received the cross at Mass, and after Mass, the presiding visiting priest, Father Soper, came to thank us for promising to pray for vocations, and especially for anyone in our parish who might be called to serve as a priest or religious to hear the call clearly and respond to it. While saying all of this to us, Father Soper looked right at my children and suggested that they might even find themselves praying for their own future vocations as priests or religious.
It was truly wonderful of Father Soper to take the time to thank my children for their commitment to pray and to comment to them about their possible future call to religious life. In fact, that brief exchange made for quite a conversation on my family's way home from Mass, and, I believe, heightened my children's desire to pray in earnest for vocations.
Another thing that increased their focus on taking our commitment to praying for vocations seriously was the request of a fellow parishioner to pray for her son by name. After Mass, she had stopped us to ask that, since we would be hosting the cross, might we include her son's discernment in our prayers. We said we would, and my children remembered their promise!
Every time my children and I prayed, the children offered extra prayers with me for the discernment of the young man as requested. This touched my heart. I smiled, wondering how God might answer our prayers and what decisions for discernment the young man might make. I also marveled at how in saying "yes", we are blessed. There my children were, never having met the young man they prayed for, but nonetheless holding him in such heartfelt and specific prayer.
Through prayer, we were connected with another member of the Church we've never even met. Through prayer, graces flow. Through prayer, calls are heard and lives are changed. God is so amazingly good and merciful!
I am glad He overrode my human delay about not wanting to host the Vocations Cross until our front rooms were cleaned by using our Vocations Cross Coordinator to invite us to just look toward the cross in a special way each day and to pray. I am grateful for how our prayers may be answered and for how the experience of praying them may have spoken to my children's heart even as they spoke to mine.
Indeed, the Vocations Cross - though simple - is powerful, I believe. I truly encourage you to suggest bringing one to your parish if your parish does not already have one or to request to host your parish's cross if one is already in rotation.
In our home, doing so was such a blessing - mess about the cross or not. More than once during the week, the idea that "a child should lead them" came to my mind, since it was often one of my children - not I - that first prompted us to remember to add praying specifically for vocations to our bedtime routine. Then, prayer card our parish gave us - courtesy of the Archdiocese of Boston - in hand, we prayed:
Dear Jesus,
Thank you for giving your life for us. Please help more young people to follow your example by giving their lives in service as priests and religious . If you are calling someone in our family to the priesthood or the religious life please help them to say yes.
Amen
Plus 3 Hail Marys.
Each time we prayed this prayer, I thought of all the young people who might respond and also prayed that, whatever God's call is for my own children, that He enable my husband and I to help prepare and support them well. I also recalled the Prayer for Vocations by the Knights of Columbus that our family and parish collaborative regularly pray:
Heavenly Father, bless Your Church with an abundance of holy and zealous priests, deacons, brothers and sisters.
Give those You have called to the married state and those You have chosen to live as single persons in the world the special graces that their lives require.
Form us all in the likeness of Your Son so that in Him, with Him and through Him we may love You more deeply and serve You more faithfully, always and everywhere. With Mary we ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Give those You have called to the married state and those You have chosen to live as single persons in the world the special graces that their lives require.
Form us all in the likeness of Your Son so that in Him, with Him and through Him we may love You more deeply and serve You more faithfully, always and everywhere. With Mary we ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Heavenly Father, bless Your Church with an abundance of holy and zealous priests, deacons, brothers and sisters.
Give those You have called to the married state and those You have chosen to live as single persons in the world the special graces that their lives require.
Form us all in the likeness of Your Son so that in Him, with Him and through Him we may love You more deeply and serve You more faithfully, always and everywhere. With Mary we ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
I love how this prayer touches specifically on so many different types of vocations. Praying for calls to the priesthood and religious life is important. Praying for other vocations is, too. We are each called to live and serve in a special way meant just for us. May we hear our calls and live our vocations well!
Whatever your vocation is, may you be strengthened in your resolve to live it and showered with graces as you do so. Further, may you consider adding prayers for vocations to your existing prayer habits.
If you'd like some ideas for beautiful vocation prayers, please take a peak at:
Lord, please inspire each of us to know You better and to open our hearts to clearly hear and respond to Your call.
Heavenly Father, bless Your Church with an abundance of holy and zealous priests, deacons, brothers and sisters.
Give those You have called to the married state and those You have chosen to live as single persons in the world the special graces that their lives require.
Form us all in the likeness of Your Son so that in Him, with Him and through Him we may love You more deeply and serve You more faithfully, always and everywhere. With Mary we ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Give those You have called to the married state and those You have chosen to live as single persons in the world the special graces that their lives require.
Form us all in the likeness of Your Son so that in Him, with Him and through Him we may love You more deeply and serve You more faithfully, always and everywhere. With Mary we ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
