World Day of Prayer for Vocations
Papal Messages for World Day of Prayer for Vocations
In 1964 Pope Paul VI instituted the World Day of Prayer for Vocations to take place each year on the third Sunday of Easter, also known as Good Shepherd Sunday. The Pope gave a radio address where he emphasised the importance of and need for vocations and implored the faithful to pray for vocations.
This Sunday, which in the Roman Liturgy takes the name of the Good Shepherd from the Gospel, therefore sees the generous hosts of Catholics throughout the world united in a single palpitation of prayer, to invoke from the Lord the workers necessary for his harvest… The problem of the sufficient number of priests touches all the faithful closely: not only because the religious future of Christian society depends on it, but also because this problem is the precise and inexorable index of the vitality of faith and love of individual parish and diocesan communities, and testimony to the moral health of Christian families.
Where vocations to the ecclesiastical and religious state flourish in large numbers, there one lives generously according to the Gospel: there is a sign that there are fervent and good parents, who not only do not fear, but feel very happy and honored to give their children to the Church; there are zealous and faithful priests, for whom the continuity of one’s priesthood is the first and most important program of pastoral care; there above all there are generous and open adolescents, pure and courageous who, nourished by Eucharistic life and sensitive to the voice of Christ, know how to nourish in their young hearts the desire to one day serve the Church, and to give themselves to souls throughout the way, to reproduce within himself the features of the Good Shepherd, and faithfully follow in his footsteps.
– Radio Message of Pope Paul VI on the inaugural World Day of Prayer for Vocations in 1964
Pope Leo XIV has written a message for the 2026 World Day of Prayer for Vocations. Pope Leo discusses our vocational journey as a way of beauty that involves a mutual awareness between us and God, trust in God’s promises and a process of maturing.
Dear brothers and sisters, dear young people, I encourage you to cultivate your personal relationship with God through daily prayer and meditation on the Word. Pause, listen and entrust yourselves. In this way, the gift of your vocation will mature, bringing you happiness and yielding abundant fruit for the Church and the world.
May the Virgin Mary, model of the interior acceptance of divine gifts and expert in prayerful listening, always accompany you on this journey!
-Pope Leo XIV’s message for the 2026 World Day of Prayer for Vocations
Diocesan Vocations Prayer
While it is good to pray for vocations throughout the year, we are particularly invited to pray for vocations on Good Shepherd Sunday. Our diocese has a vocations prayer which you can pray on this day and also make part of your regular prayer intentions:
Novena to St Joseph the Worker for Vocations
Our diocese also has an annual novena to St Joseph the Worker for vocations, which takes place from the 23rd of April
to the 1st of May, which is usually near Good Shepherd Sunday. You are invited to join with people from around the diocese praying this novena for vocations each year.