THE POPE MEETS PARTICIPANTS
IN EUROPEAN CONFERENCE ON
THE PASTORAL MINISTRY FOR VOCATIONS
At 12:15 today, the Holy Father held an audience at the Sala Clementina of the Apostolic Palace for participants in the European conference on pastoral ministry for vocations, being held in Rome July 2-5.
Taking part are the officials in charge of vocations in each of the 34 Catholic bishops' conference in Europe.
Here is a translation of the Pope's address to them:
Dear brothers and sisters:
It is with genuine pleasure that I meet with you, aware of the precious pastoral service that you carry out in the promotion, animation and discernment of vocations.
You came to Rome to take part in a convention of reflections, confrontation and sharing among the Churches of Europe on the theme "Sowers of the Gospel of Vocation: A Word that calls and sends forth", aimed at giving new impetus to your efforts in favor of vocations.
Care of vocations constitutes for every diocese one of the pastoral priorities, which takes on greater value this year in the context of the Year for Priests that has just begun.
I cordially greet the Bishop Delegates for the pastoral ministry of vocations in the various bishops' conferences, as well as the directors of the national vocational centers, their co-workers, and all who are present.
In the center of your labors is the evangelical parable of the sower. With abundance and free giving, the Lord casts the seeds of the Word of God, knowing that these could well find unsuitable ground which will not allow a seed to mature because of dryness, or which could extinguish its vital force by suffocating it in thorny undergrowth.
Nonetheless, the sower is not discouraged, because he knows that part of the seed is destined to find 'good earth', that is, hearts that are ardent and able to welcome the Word with willingness, to make it mature in perseverance and then to generously give back its fruits for the benefit of many.
The image of the earth may evoke the reality - more or less good - of the family; the oftentimes arid and hard environment for work; the days of suffering and tears.
The earth represents, above all, the heart of every man, particularly the young, whom you must address in your work of listening and companionship - a heart that is often confused and disoriented, and yet able to contain unthinkable energies of giving, ready to open up to a life spent for love of Jesus, able to follow him with totality and the certainty of having found the greatest treasure of existence.
It is always and only the Lord who can sow in the heart of man. Only after the abundant and generous sowing of the Word of God are we able to go farther along the paths of companionship and education, of formation adn discernment.
All this has to do with that tiny seed - a mysterious gift of divine Providence - which emits its own extraordinary power. It is in fact the Word of God which by itself effectively works out what it says and desires.
There is another saying of Jesus which uses the image of the seed, and which we can put alongside the parable of the sower: "Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit" (Jn 12,24).
Here the Lord insists on the correlation between the death of the seed and the 'many fruits' that it will bear. The grain of wheat is he, Jesus. The fruit is 'life in abundance'(Jn 10,10) which he acquired for us through the Cross.
This is also the logic and the true fecundity of every pastoral ministry for vocations in the Church. Like Christ, the priest and the vocational animator should be 'a grain of wheat' who renounces himself to do the will of the Father; who lives hidden from sensation and noise; who renounces the search for that visibility and great image that today often becomes the criterion and even the goal of life in many parts of our culture, and which fascinates many young people.
Dear friends, be sowers of trust and hope. The sense of being lost that young people often feel today is indeed profound. Often human words are devoid of future and prospects, devoid even of sense and wisdom. What is being spread is a sense of frantic impatience and an inability to live through a time of waiting.
And yet, this could be God's hour: his call, mediated through the power and the efficacy of the Word, generates a path of hope towards the fullness of life.
The Word of God can truly become light and power, a spring of hope; it can blaze a path that goes through Jesus, the 'way' and the 'gate' - through his Cross, which is the fullness of love.
This is the message that comes to us from the Pauline Year which has just ended. St. Paul, conquered by Christ, was an inspirer and a sharper of vocations, as one can well see in the greetings of his letters, in which dozens of proper names appear - namely, the men and women who collaborated with him in the service of the Gospel.
This is also the message of the Year for Priests that has just begun: the Holy Curate of Ars, Jean Marie Vianney - who is the beacon for this new spiritual itinerary - was a priest who dedicated his life to the spiritual guidance of persons, with humility and simplicity, "tasting and seeing" the goodness of God in ordinary situations. He thus showed himself to be a true master of the ministry of comfort and vocational companionship.
Therefore, the Year for Priests offers a beautiful opportunity to recover the profound sense of the pastoral ministry for vocations, as well as the fundamental choices of method: witness that is simple and credible; communion, with itineraries agreed upon and shared within the local Church; the day-to-day routine that educates in following the Lord in everyday life; listening, guided by the Holy Spirit, to orient young people in their search for God and true happiness; and finally, truth, which alone can generate interior freedom.
Dear brothers and sisters, may the Word of God become in each of you a spring of benediction, comfort and renewed trust, so that you will be equal to the task of helping many to 'see' and 'touch' the Jesus whom they have accepted as their Teacher.
May the Word of the Lord always dwell in you, renew in your hearts the light, love and peace that only God can give, and make you capable of bearing witness to and announcing the Gospel, the spring of communion and love.
With this hope that I entrust to the intercession of the Most Blessed Mary, I impart the Apostolic Blessing on all of you.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 05/07/2009 03:23]