VOCATION STORIES
I am often asked, especially by young people, why I became a priest. Maybe some of you would like to ask the same question. Let me try briefly to reply. I must begin by saying that it is impossible to explain entirely. For it remains a mystery, even to myself. How does one explain the ways of God? Yet, I know that, at a certain point in my life, I became convinced that Christ was saying to me what he had said to thousands before me: 'Come, follow me!' There was a clear sense that what I heard in my heart was no human voice, nor was it just an idea of my own. Christ was calling me to serve him as a priest.
And you can probably tell that I am deeply grateful to God for my vocation to the priesthood. Nothing means more to me or gives me greater joy that to celebrate Mass each day and to serve God's people in the Church. That has been true ever since the day of my ordination as a priest. Nothing has ever changed this, not even becoming Pope.
— John Paul II, Los Angeles, CA, September 15, 1987
Please watch the videos above to hear vocation stories from some of our priests.
The Conversion of Saint Paul on the Way to Damascus by Caravaggio (1600)
The Inspiration of Saint Matthew by Caravaggio (1602)
The Calling of the Apostes Peter and Andrew by Duccio di Boninsegna
The Incredulity of Saint Thomas by Caravaggio (1602)
The Sistine Madonna by Raphael (1514)
Vision of St. Thomas Aquinas by Stefano Di Giovanni Sassetta (1423)
Saint Benedict by Pietro Perugino (1498)
Young people, if they know how to pray, can be trusted to know what to do with God's call.
— Pope Benedict XVI
Every vocation is part of a divine plan… From all eternity, since we began to exist in the plan of the Creator, He also willed us to be 'called.' He prepared in us the gifts and conditions for the personal, conscious and opportune response to the call of Christ and of the Church. It is God Who loves us, Who is Love, Who calls us.
— Pope Benedict XVI
