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Vocations
Every vocation in the Church is at the service
of holiness. Some however, such as the vocations to ordained
ministry and consecrated life, are at the service of holiness
in a thoroughly unique manner. It is to these vocations that
I invite everyone to pay particular attention today, by
intensifying
their prayers for them.
The vocation to ordained ministry "is essentially
a call to holiness in the form which derives from the sacrament
of Orders. Holiness is intimacy with God, it is the imitation
of Christ, who was poor, chaste and humble; it is unreserved
love for souls and a giving of oneself on their behalf and
for their true good; it is love for the Church which is
holy and wants us to be holy, because this is the mission
that Christ entrusted to her" (pastores
dabo vobis, 33).
Consecrated life reveals the intimate nature
of every Christian vocation to holiness, and the straining
of the entire Church-Bride towards Christ "her only Spouse".
"The profession of the evangelical counsels is intimately
connected with the mystery of Christ, and has the duty of
making somehow present the way of life which Jesus himself
chose and indicated as an absolute eschatological value" (Vita
consecrata, 29).
- -Pope John Paul II, Message for the 39th World
Day of Prayer for Vocations, n. 2
Last Update November 12, 2006
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