Vocation Prayers

PRAYERS AND REFLECTIONS to foster Vocations to the Religious Life:

* APREL PRAYER: Heavenly Father, you invite all who believe in you to be perfect in love. Do not cease to call many souls to follow more closely in the footsteps of your Son in the Religious State. Assist those you have chosen for this vocation to demonstrate to the Church and the world by their way of life a convincing sign of your Kingdom. Keep them always faithful to their vocation that everywhere they may be seen as living images of your Son. We ask this through Christ Our Lord. Amen.

 

* PRAYER OF CARDINAL NEWMAN: God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission - I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. I am a link in a chain, a bond of connections between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good, I shall do His work. I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place while not intending it - if I do but keep His commandments. Therefore I will trust Him. Whatever, wherever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him; in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him; if I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. He does nothing in vain. He knows what He is about. He may take away my friends, He may thrown me among strangers. He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide my future from me - still He knows what He is about...

 

"Individuals, captivated in the depths of their heart by the beauty and goodness of the Lord ..." (Vita Consecrata n. 104).

 

PRAYER OF ST. THOMAS AQUINAS For a Wisely Ordered Life: Grant, O merciful God, that I may ardently desire, prudently investigate, truthfully perceive and perfectly fulfil those things which are pleasing to Thee, to the praise and glory of Thy name. O my God, put order in my life: grant that I may know what Thou demandest of me, and that I may do it in a manner fitting and useful to my soul. Grant, O Lord my God, that I may not fail Thee in prosperity or adversity, that when things go well, I may not be proud, and when things go wrong, I may not be depressed. May I rejoice in nothing except what leads to Thee, nor be saddened except by what leads away from Thee. May I not seek to please anyone, not fear to displease anyone except Thee. May all transitory things seem worthles to me, O Lord, and all eternal things dear to me. May every joy without Thee weary me, and may I desire nothing beside Thee. May work done for Thee, O Lord, delight me; may all repose without Thee be wearisome to me. Grant O my God, that I direct my heart to Thee; and in failure grieve constantly with the purpose to amend. Make me, O Lord my God, obedient without contradiction, poor without dejection, chaste without corruption, patient without murmuring, humble without pretence, cheerful without dissipation, serious without sternness, active without levity, fearful of Thee without despair, truthful without duplicity. Make me do good without presumption, correct my neighbour without pride, edify him by word and example without hypocrisy. Give me, O Lord God, an ever watchful heart, which no overcurious speculation may lead away from Thee; a noble heart, which no unworthy affection may draw downwards; a right heart, which no wrong intention may turn aside; a firm heart, which no tribulation may break; a free heart, which no vehement affection may claim. Bestow on me, O Lord my God, a mind which knows Thee, a diligence which seeks Thee, a wisdom which finds Thee, a manner of acting which pleases Thee, a perseverance which confidently awaits Thee, a trust which finally embraces Thee. Grant that I may suffer Thy punishments here through repentance, make use of Thy favours on the way through grace, and possess perfectly Thy joys in heaven through glory: Who livest and reignest God, world without end. Amen.