World Day of Prayer for Vocations... April 29th

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Something I did not know until I ventured onto the Society of the Sacred Heart web page is that today marks the 49th annual World Day of Prayer for Vocations.  

Apparently in 1963 Pope Paul VI designated Good Shepherd Sunday as World Day of Prayer for Vocations and ever since, this day is celebrated on the fourth Sunday of Easter.  Sr. Kathleen Hughes, RSCJ and former Provincial for the U.S. Province wrote  the beautiful prayer below. 

Prayer for Vocations 

God whose power is love and whose heart is infinite,

You have called the Religious of the Sacred Heart

to discover and reveal your love

by living as women of the pierced heart of Christ,

attentive both to your presence

and to the anguish and hope of your people.

Keep us faithful to your longings for us:

contemplative by vocation

desirous of communion

generous in forgiveness

and passionate for justice.

By our witness

attract other women to this same spirit and mission.

Join to our number those who

are great-hearted and ready to reveal your face.

Give us companions who, despite the ambiguities of this age,

will lean on the love of their sisters as they root their lives in you.

Invite to the Society of the Sacred Heart

those who are generous and joy-filled like Madeleine Sophie,

those who are courageous and daring like Philippine,

and renew us all in these habits of heart.

We ask this in confidence and hope through Christ,

risen and reigning with you and the Spirit,

now and forever.  Amen

- Kathleen Hughes, RSCJ