Message for the 45th World Day of Prayer for Vocations

His Holiness Pope Benedict has released a Message on the occasion of the 45th World Day of Prayer for Vocations, which is to be held this weekend. The message is beautiful and worth a read. Most touching, probably because I am a farm boy at heart, was the eighth paragraph which read:

8. Vocations to the ministerial priesthood and to the consecrated life can only flourish in a spiritual soil that is well cultivated. Christian communities that live the missionary dimension of the mystery of the Church in a profound way will never be inward looking. Mission, as a witness of divine love, becomes particularly effective when it is shared in a community, “so that the world may believe” (cf. Jn 17: 21). The Church prays everyday to the Holy Spirit for the gift of vocations. Gathered around the Virgin Mary, Queen of the Apostles, as in the beginning, the ecclesial community learns from her how to implore the Lord for a flowering of new apostles, alive with the faith and love that are necessary for the mission.

May we be that good soil!