The Sunday of the Good Shepherd
on White Sunday is celebrated in the Church as the World Day of Prayer for Religious Vocations. This year, for the 56th time during these days, from May 12 to 18, 2019, we held a week of prayer for vocations to the priesthood and to the consecrated life.
In our diocese of Warsaw-Prague an initiative was born to invite people to pray for vocations this week – every day in a different place. On May 14, 2019, a prayer meeting of the members of various religious orders took place in our Provincial House – with the intention of vocations for our communities. The meeting began with the Eucharistic celebration celebrated by Bishop Marek Solarczyk (Bishop Solarczyk is responsible for religious vocations in the Polish Episcopate). Together with the bishop, two other priests celebrated Holy Mass: Father Michał Dziedzic, Diocesan Youth Chaplain, and Father Romuald Kszuk of the Schoenstatt Fathers. There were sisters from almost all the orders that have their houses in Otwock. Lay people who are united with us also participated in prayer. After Holy Mass, we stayed before the Blessed Sacrament and prayed for new vocations and also for the grace of fidelity on the way of our vocation.
We prayed for the Holy Spirit with the words:
Holy Spirit, you are the Spirit of love, we thank you for the spiritual vocations that have enriched the Church of Christ.
We ask you to look upon your people, who especially today need holy priests as faithful witnesses of the love which God gives to each person.
Look to the Church which senses the need of religious to show the joy which is given in a life which is consecrated exclusively to the heavenly Father.
Holy Spirit, you are the Spirit of life, you open hearts to God’s call. Make the hearts and minds of young people open so that they may hear the call of God who offers them the fullness of life at the service of the Gospel and gives them reliable hope in your presence. Amen.
The devotion ended with the Litany of Loreto and the Eucharistic Blessing for the way into our daily lives.
After this spiritual nourishment, we met over cake and tea to continue enjoying the joy of the community.
This was the first such meeting in our house, but perhaps not the last. This desire was born after this beautiful experience. The sisters of the other communities also expressed this wish.