Prayer for Vocations
A future full of hope
God knows me and calls me by my name.... 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 never may know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next.
ST JOHN HENRY NEWMAN
Vocations in the Clifton Diocese
Clifton Diocese is always seeking to encourage each one of us to consider more deeply how God is calling us to serve. The Vocations Ministry of the diocese seeks to promote vocations and is always happy to come and talk to parishes and schools or other groups about this.
Fr Colin Mason is Vocations Director for Clifton Diocese. He is Parish Priest of the Sacred Heart and St Antony’s, Bristol, and has a strong focus on promoting vocations within the diocese. He leads a Vocations team that encourages and supports vocations to the priesthood, the religious life, the consecrated lay life and single life, and to the Permanent Diaconate. The vocation to the married life is encouraged and fostered separately within the Diocese.
Fr Colin Mason
Vocations Director
A personal reflection
I would never have become a Catholic priest if it were not for three other priests who all had a remarkable influence on my life.
The first was Fr Pat O’Donoghue (later to be Bishop of Lancaster) at Westminster Cathedral when I was a student at UCL. He strongly encouraged me both during my university years and in the subsequent years. Bishop Patrick died just recently.
The second was Fr Jim Duffy, a Westminster priest, who had a pronounced influence on the course of my life and who was always encouraging and supportive ... and offered a wise ear after I became a priest myself. Fr Jim died suddenly a few months ago.
The final person, who had the most direct and decisive influence, was my home parish priest, Fr George O’Sullivan, in Malmesbury. He almost ‘ordered’ me to apply to the diocese. I had the unique privilege of assisting him at the altar as he offered his final public Mass shortly before his death. He wanted nothing more than to die ‘in harness’ as the parish priest at St Aldhelm’s. God granted him his wish.
All three provided a gentle model of priestly ministry based on service, pastoral care, and fidelity. They gave a living example and witness of diocesan priesthood. But all three knew that words of encouragement and advice are also needed. All three were not hesitant to tell people that they had a vocation.
Having listened to other people’s vocation stories over the years, I have noted just how often vocations are seeded by a human word – a word of encouragement from another person in the Church. God works through members of the Church; the divine uses human instruments. The divine Word uses the human word to communicate a calling.
Fr Colin has a focus on vocations promotion and discernment for the diocesan priest- hood. He will be happy to answer any questions or to help those who wish to explore and discern a possible calling to service as a priest in the Clifton Diocese.
Fr Dominic Findlay-Wilson
Assistant Vocations Director
A personal reflection
It’s very difficult to put into words one’s vocation as to a certain extent it’s a mystery! And also it’s something that is quite dynamic and so it’s some- times hard to pinpoint definite times and places that concretely contribute towards its growth.
I think if I am honest it has always been there below the surface whether or not I realised it. A bit like a dormant seed waiting to be watered.
But I know that certain factors have been important in allowing the seed to germinate. For example my family. The strong faith of my parents allowed a rich soil in which the seedling could take root. Regular family prayer watered the seedling and allowed it to grow – in particular the rosary.
Personal prayer, regular Mass and the sacraments strengthened the young plant. Good friends and particular priests helped to support it during difficult times. But I noticed it grew stronger when I listened to and responded to the promptings of the Holy Spirit in my life. This is not easy in the noise and busyness of life. I had to listen with my heart.
I think that whilst I recognised the presence of my vocation in the end the Holy Spirit wanted me to choose for it rather than wait until it felt right. I think God really wants us to get to know him and then freely choose for him. Ultimately I realised that this was actually the most meaningful thing I could ever do with my life.
Fr Dominic has a particular focus on supporting our current students for the priest-hood who are in formation in our seminaries.
Sister Maria
Monastery of Our Lady & St Bernard, Brownshill
A personal reflection
I’m on a faith journey as a religious sister, searching daily for the Lord who loves me as I am and invites me to an ever-deeper relationship. I first felt in my heart, in my inner being, an attraction to the religious life at primary school. I used to think that this personal calling at such a young age was unusual, but not so when one listens to other vocation stories.
Looking back on my life, I had many opportunities. My parents practised their faith and celebrated the sacraments. I went to a secondary school where sisters taught, so I didn’t have to search for role models.
I began to develop my relationship with Jesus in my final year at university, sharing a flat with a friend who took daily personal prayer seriously. I began to have places and times of stillness and silence where I encountered a real and living relationship with God in prayer.
After teaching for several years, during which time I continued to discern my calling by connecting with different religious communities, I joined a monastic order and after several years of formation, offered myself to God definitively as a Bernardine Cistercian sister.
The Lord loves each of us uniquely and calls us to life. I endeavour to discern and respond to the Father’s will to be what I am and to become what God knows me to be and I do this in relationship with my community, within the Church and the world. Jesus continues to captivate my heart.
Reflection
• Get in touch with your inner longings, with your inner being and discover what is your deepest desire.
• Ask yourself what is life-giving for you. In what do you delight?
Sister Maria is able to help those men and women who are thinking of exploring a vocation to the religious life – i.e. to be a monk, nun, brother, or sister.
Prayers for Vocations
Prayer of St Francis
All Highest and Glorious God,
Cast your light into the darkness of my heart.
Grant me right faith, firm hope, perfect charity, profound humility, with wisdom and perception, O Lord, so that I may always and everywhere seek to know and do what is truly your holy will, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen
Prayer of Charles de Foucauld
Father,
I abandon myself into Your hands,
do with me what You will.
For whatever You may do, I thank You.
I am ready for all, I accept all,
let only Your will be done in me,
as in all Your creatures:
I wish no more than this, O Lord.
Into Your hands I commend my soul
I offer it to You with all the love of my heart.
For I love, You, my God,
and so need to give myself, to surrender myself
into Your hands without reserve and with boundless confidence, for You are my Father.
Amen
Prayer for Priests
Lord Jesus,
the ministry of priests is a sign of your unfailing care.
Call from among us the priests needed for the Church of today and tomorrow.
Bless all students for the priesthood.
Grant them joy, wisdom, courage and a generous spirit. Sustain priests with a real sense of your love and the support of those they are called to serve.
Keep them faithful to their calling.
Amen
“I have a vocation from God. If I already know what it is, I pray to be faithful. If I am still searching, I pray to hear God’s voice and to respond generously.”
Amen
DIOCESAN PRAYER
God our Father, open the horizons of our minds and hearts
so that we can see what hope your call holds for us.
Pour out the overflowing gifts of your Spirit so that we, your Church, may become a people of hope for our world.
We ask you this through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever.
Our Lady, Woman of Hope, pray for us.
St Peter, Rock of Hope, pray for us.
St Paul, Apostle of Hope, pray for us.