LETTER FOR 38TH WORLD DAY OF PRAYER FOR VOCATIONS

VATICAN CITY, NOV 25, 2000 (VIS) - Made public this morning was Pope John Paul's Letter for the 38th World Day of Prayer for Vocations, which will take place on May 6, 2001, the fourth Sunday of Easter, on the theme "Life as Vocation."

"Considering life as vocation," writes the Pope, "encourages interior freedom, stirring within the person a desire for the future, as well as the rejection of a notion of existence that is passive, boring and banal. In this way life takes on the value of 'a gift received which, by its nature, tends to become a good given'. Man shows he is reborn in the Spirit when he learns to follow the way of the New Commandment: 'Love one another as I have loved you'. One could say that, in a certain sense, love is the DNA of the children of God: It is 'the holy vocation' by which we have been called."

"We are not alone in fashioning our lives," continues the Holy Father, because "God walks with us, in the midst of our vicissitudes and, if we want Him to, He weaves with each of us a marvelous tale of love, unique and unrepeatable."

However, states the Pope, in western cultures today we see that "God is, to all intents and purposes, marginalized from daily life. Thus there is the need for a unified effort by the entire Christian community to 're-evangelize life'." For this we need "men and women who show the fullness of a life which has God as its source" and for this reason our attention turns, on this world day, "to the need and urgency for ordained ministers and for persons willing to follow Christ on the demanding path of consecrated life in the profession of the evangelical counsels."

John Paul II then had special words for young people, the pastors of the People of God, those in the consecrated life and Christian parents.

"Only Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life," he writes. "It is thus necessary to help (young people) meet the Lord and establish with Him a deep relationship." Pastors have "an important role" in helping all faithful to know the Lord, especially through "their personal witness of a life in which the spirit of service and true Paschal joy are reflected."

May those living the consecrated life, says the Holy Father, "through their presence and their service, open the hearts and minds of young people to horizons of hope filled with God and educate them to humility and to the gratuitousness of loving service."

John Paul II urged parents "not to leave your children alone when faced with the weighty choices of adolescence and youth. Help them not to feel overcome by the anxious search for material well-being and guide them towards the authentic joy of the spirit. Make their hearts echo .... with the liberating joy of faith."

His Letter for the World Day of Prayer for Vocations concludes with a prayer and an invitation to the faithful "together with me, to implore the Lord so the harvest will not be short of workers."

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