Of Diego López Marina

ACI Prensa staff, November 3, 2024 / time 07:00

The chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations, Bishop Earl A. Boyea, asked the faithful to pray for vocations during National Vocations Awareness Week (NVAW).

The event, which will take place from November 3-9, is dedicated to promoting vocations to the priesthood, diaconate and consecrated life through prayer and education in dioceses, parishes and schools.

“On National Vocation Awareness Week, we celebrate in a special way the men and women who give their lives to God through a life of service to the Church, ‘sowing seeds of hope and revealing to all the beauty of the Kingdom of God,'” as the Pope. says Francis in his message for the World Day of Prayer for Vocations” RECORDED Boyea, Bishop of Lansing, Michigan.

In his message, the prelate referred to the Eucharistic procession held last summer during the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis, which brought together more than 55,000 believers.

“The joy and enthusiasm were palpable as thousands of seminarians, religious, deacons, priests, bishops and cardinals processed the testimony to the world that Jesus is present in the Eucharist, affirming their own vocations. There were people in tears who embraced each other as they experienced this historic moment in the life of our Church in the United States,” he said.

The bishop also expressed his hope and prayer that the Revival and the National Eucharistic Congress “give a bountiful harvest of vocations.”

“We pray with gratitude for those who seek and respond in their daily lives to their vocation, be they husbands, wives, parents, priests and other ordained ministers and consecrated persons,” Boyea added.

According to the USCCB, in 1976 the American bishops designated the 28th Sunday of the liturgical year as an opportunity for the Catholic Church in the United States to renew its prayerful support for those discerning an ecclesial vocation. In 2014, the commemoration of National Vocation Awareness Week in the United States was moved to the first week of November to better involve Catholic educational institutions in efforts to raise awareness for vocations.

Vocation Awareness Week resources are available on USCCB website and also available in spanish.

This story was published for the first time by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish language news partner. It was translated and adapted by CNA.

Diego Lopez Marina holds a degree in Communication Sciences with specialization in Journalism from the University of San Martín de Porres (Peru). He started his professional career in 2015, as an editor for the Journalistic Archive area of ​​Diario El Comercio. In 2016 he started working as a writer for ACI Prensa and since 2018 he has been working as a web editor.