Pope Video: For Vocations to the Priesthood
In the Pope Video for February 2025 produced by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, Pope Francis asks that we pray that the ecclesial community might welcome the desires and doubts of those young people who feel a call to serve Christ’s mission in the priesthood and religious life.
Pope Francis recalls his own journey of faith, he says that “When I was 17 years old, I was a student and was working. I had my own plans. I wasn’t thinking at all of being a priest. But one day, I went into the church and God was there, waiting for me! God still calls young people even today, sometimes in ways we can’t imagine. Sometimes we don’t hear because we’re too busy with our own things, our own plans, even with our own things in the Church. But the Holy Spirit also speaks to us through dreams and speaks to us through the concerns young people feel in their hearts. If we accompany their journeys, we’ll see how God is doing new things through them and we’ll be able to welcome His call in ways that better serve the Church and the world today. Let’s trust young people! And, above all, let’s trust God for He calls everyone! Let us pray that the ecclesial community might welcome the desires and doubts of those young people who feel called to live Jesus’s mission in life: either through the priestly life, or religious life.”
Father Cristóbal Fones, S.J., International Director of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, says that believing in young people encourages them to freely examine their own vocation and to respond to it courageously. He notes that we must welcome and accept the concerns, questions and aspirations of young people and remember it is an important component in the vocational process. He notes that through the voices of young people, God could be indicating new paths for today’s Church, thus offering an opportunity for our own conversion. Father Fones notes that this approach is also especially important within families too. He says we need to create a climate in our communities and at home that is conducive to listening to God’s voice, welcoming and offering respect to those who feel the desire to follow Christ in the consecrated or priestly life. Finally he remarks “To sum up, our attitudes can play a decisive part for young people who want to respond to the Lord on this path, yet who do not know how to do it.”
