Life is short. Pray hard.

Okay, that wasn’t exactly the message Pope Benedict gave for this 44th World Day of Prayer for Vocations. But it was more like ‘life is communal, so get together and pray hard.’

It’s a contemplation of how God calls individuals to serve certain vocations from the time of Abraham forward. This part particularly caught my attention.

The care of vocations, therefore, demands a constant ‘education’ for listening to the voice of God. … Now, docile and faithful listening can only take place in a climate of intimate communion with God which is realized principally in prayer. According to the explicit command of the Lord, we must implore the gift of vocations, in the first place by praying untiringly and together to the ‘Lord of the harvest.’ The invitation is in the plural. … The Good Shepherd, therefore, invites us to pray to the heavenly Father, to pray unitedly and insistently, that He may send vocations for the service of the Church as communion.

Look at the wording. “The care of vocations…” Do we even think in those terms, that this is something to foster and care for, something that requires attentiveness? And that it “demands a constant education for listening to the voice of God.” Prayer is hard enough for many people to figure out, but listening to the voice of God?  Yes, I think we need to work on learning how to do that.

Benedict says the Lord himself explicitly commands that we “implore the gift of vocations”…how? It’s a two-parter, and he makes the point twice, for emphasis. The Good Shepherd asks us to pray “untiringly and together”, “unitedly and insistently”, for vocations to serve the Church.

I don’t think we’re doing that too well, overall. But today’s focus as a universal Church is supposed to change that. It’s the World Day of Prayer for Vocations. Here’s one, for starters. Here’s a bunch more.

And here’s the link to the beautiful film “Fishers of Men.” It’s so inspiring, I told the producer it should be twice as long. He smiled and said ‘better to leave them wanting to see more.’

Yes, that’s the idea.