Praying for Vocations

Some time ago, our local parish began an initiative to pray together for vocations, and, thus, another prayer peg* was set in my life.

Each weekend at Mass, parishioners in our local collaborative pause to pray a beautiful Vocations Prayer from the Knights of Columbus:

Heavenly Father, bless Your Church with an abundance of holy and zealous priests, deacons, religious brothers and sisters, and lay ministers.

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.

Each time I pray this prayer, I am struck by how it touches specifically on each vocation that a person may be called to, petitions for grace and strength, points us right to Jesus, and reminds us to live with love and service.

It is such a wonderful prayer to "peg" into daily or weekly life. I encourage you to consider doing so.

*What's a Prayer Peg?

If you have not caught my prior Prayer Pegs posts, please let me briefly explain what a "prayer peg" is.
Just like one can purposefully peg laundry to a line, so can we attach distinct praise, thanksgiving, petitions, and intercession to regular parts of our lives.

By pairing particular prayers with routine activities, we can form "Holy Habits" that help us respond to St. Paul's exhortation from 1 Thessalonians 5:17 to "pray without ceasing".

Prayer pegs provide and easy and effective way to enrich prayer life.

Does Your Parish Do a Vocation Cross?

Another wonderful tradition to support prayer for vocations is a parish vocation cross.  If your parish does not already partake in such a program, I'd recommend bringing the idea up.

It is a simple, but powerful (because prayer is powerful!) initiative where each week one individual or family is given a cross and prayer cards to take home to pray daily for the week. Then, the next week, the cross and cards are transferred to another person or family at Mass. Thus, prayers for vocations increase and community builds.  Wonderful!

We first hosted our parish's vocation cross two year's ago and are delighted to be doing so again.

As I pray each day this week, I ask for the strength and grace to better live my vocation, for God to clearly illuminate the vocation He has planned for each of my children, and for those around me to be strengthened in their vocations. I also, of course, pray for an increase in vocations to the religious life.
If you'd like some ideas for beautiful vocation prayers, please take a peak at:

• Vocation Prayers.
• Discernment Prayers.
• Prayers for Vocations.
  
  
  Lord, we pray that each of us hears our call to vocation clearly and is given the strength and grace to live it well.