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Prayer 63: Prayer for Vocations

Prayer 63

Prayer for Vocations

Jesus, who from the tenderness of Your divine Heart, uttered prayers of compassion for poor humanity, seeking a guide that might conduct it along the difficult paths of the world towards the light and the life; O Lord, who made messengers of Your angels and flaming fires of Your servants, send to these people who are Yours, and who wish to be Yours, many priests, and clothe them with holiness so that Your saints may rejoice.

You who know all hearts, point out the elect to whom You wish to entrust so sublime a ministry of truth and love. Enlighten their minds so that they may understand the great grace of Your divine call. Strengthen their wills so that they may not allow themselves to be overcome by carelessness and pleasure or trapped by the hidden evil desires of human nature and so that they may not fear sacrifice, but spread their wings and, like the royal eagle, soar towards the serene and glorious heights of Your eternal Priesthood.

Reveal to their parents the honor and matchless beauty of the gift of their own sons that they would make to You. Grant them the strength to overcome opposing interests and affections. Inspire in generous souls a desire to aid generously those of Your elect whom poverty prevents from following Your voice. Bestow upon their teachers the necessary light to cultivate in their young hearts the delicate plant of a vocation until the day when, ardent and pure, they will mount to Your holy altar.

Then, Jesus, in their turn may they become true angels for Your people-angels of purity who renounce for Your divine love all human love, tender and holy though it be; angels of charity who renounce the consolations of an earthly family to create another and greater family of which they will be both father and pastor, and in which the little ones, the unfortunate, the weary and the abandoned, will be the object of their love; angels of light through whom faith in You will cause human understanding to be as resplendent as the morning star; angels of sacrifice who will be consumed for the welfare of their brethren; angels of counsel and comfort who will console them in their grief, sustain them in the combat, and point out to them in the trying hour of doubt, the bright way of virtue and duty; angels of grace who will purify and comfort souls and unite them to You by distributing among them the Bread of Life; angels of peace who, at the moment of death, will cause them to taste the inexpressible sweetness of desire for and love of You and will open to them the gates of heaven, where You are the light and the infinite joy of hearts forever. Amen.