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Message of the Holy Father for the 58th World
Day of Prayer for Vocations, 19.03.2021
On 25 April 2021, Fourth Sunday of Easter, the
58th World Day of Prayer for Vocations will be
held on the theme Saint Joseph: The Dream of
Vocation, in the special Year dedicated to the
Patron of the universal Church, announced 8
December last.
The following is the Message sent by the Holy
Father Francis for the occasion to the bishops,
priests, consecrated persons and faithful
throughout the world:
Message of the Holy Father
Saint Joseph: The Dream of Vocation
Dear brothers and sisters,
8 December last, the one hundred fiftieth
anniversary of the declaration of Saint Joseph
as Patron of the Universal Church, marked the
beginning of a special year devoted to him (cf.
Decree of the Apostolic Penitentiary, 8 December
2020). For my part, I wrote the Apostolic Letter
Patris Corde, whose aim was “to increase our
love for this great saint”. Saint Joseph is an
extraordinary figure, yet at the same time one
“so close to our own human experience”. He did
not do astonishing things, he had no unique
charisms, nor did he appear special in the eyes
of those who met him. He was not famous or even
noteworthy: the Gospels do not report even a
single word of his. Still, through his ordinary
life, he accomplished something extraordinary in
the eyes of God.
God looks on the heart (cf. 1 Sam 16:7), and in
Saint Joseph he recognized the heart of a
father, able to give and generate life in the
midst of daily routines. Vocations have this
same goal: to beget and renew lives every day.
The Lord desires to shape the hearts of fathers
and mothers: hearts that are open, capable of
great initiatives, generous in self-giving,
compassionate in comforting anxieties and
steadfast in strengthening hopes. The priesthood
and the consecrated life greatly need these
qualities nowadays, in times marked by fragility
but also by the sufferings due to the pandemic,
which has spawned uncertainties and fears about
the future and the very meaning of life. Saint
Joseph comes to meet us in his gentle way, as
one of “the saints next door”. At the same time,
his strong witness can guide us on the journey.
Saint Joseph suggests to us three key words for
each individual’s vocation. The first is dream.
Everyone dreams of finding fulfilment in life.
We rightly nurture great hopes, lofty
aspirations that ephemeral goals – like success,
money and entertainment – cannot satisfy. If we
were to ask people to express in one word their
life’s dream, it would not be difficult to
imagine the answer: “to be loved”. It is love
that gives meaning to life, because it reveals
life’s mystery. Indeed, we only havelife if we
give it; we truly possess it only if we
generously give it away. Saint Joseph has much
to tell us in this regard, because, through the
dreams that God inspired in him, he made of his
life a gift.
The Gospels tell us of four dreams (cf. Mt 1:20;
2:13.19.22). They were calls from God, but they
were not easy to accept. After each dream,
Joseph had to change his plans and take a risk,
sacrificing his own plans in order to follow the
mysterious designs of God, whom he trusted
completely. We may ask ourselves, “Why put so
much trust in a dream in the night?” Although a
dream was considered very important in ancient
times, it was still a small thing in the face of
the concrete reality of life. Yet Saint Joseph
let himself be guided by his dreams without
hesitation. Why? Because his heart was directed
to God; it was already inclined towards him. A
small indication was enough for his watchful
“inner ear” to recognize God’s voice. This
applies also to our calling: God does not like
to reveal himself in a spectacular way,
pressuring our freedom. He conveys his plans to
us with gentleness. He does not overwhelm us
with dazzling visions but quietly speaks in the
depths of our heart, drawing near to us and
speaking to us through our thoughts and
feelings. In this way, as he did with Saint
Joseph, he sets before us profound and
unexpected horizons.
Indeed, Joseph’s dreams led him into experiences
he would never have imagined. The first of these
upended his betrothal, but made him the father
of the Messiah; the second caused him to flee to
Egypt, but saved the life of his family. After
the third, which foretold his return to his
native land, a fourth dream made him change
plans once again, bringing him to Nazareth, the
place where Jesus would begin his preaching of
the Kingdom of God. Amid all these upheavals, he
found the courage to follow God’s will. So too
in a vocation: God’s call always urges us to
take a first step, to give ourselves, to press
forward. There can be no faith without risk.
Only by abandoning ourselves confidently to
grace, setting aside our own programmes and
comforts, can we truly say “yes” to God. And
every “yes” bears fruit because it becomes part
of a larger design, of which we glimpse only
details, but which the divine Artist knows and
carries out, making of every life a masterpiece.
In this regard, Saint Joseph is an outstanding
example of acceptance of God’s plans. Yet his
was an active acceptance: never reluctant or
resigned. Joseph was “certainly not passively
resigned, but courageously and firmly proactive”
(Patris Corde, 4). May he help everyone,
especially young people who are discerning, to
make God’s dreams for them come true. May he
inspire in them the courage to say “yes” to the
Lord who always surprises and never disappoints.
A second word marks the journey of Saint Joseph
and that of vocation: service. The Gospels show
how Joseph lived entirely for others and never
for himself. The holy people of God invoke him
as the most chaste spouse, based on his ability
to love unreservedly. By freeing love from all
possessiveness, he became open to an even more
fruitful service. His loving care has spanned
generations; his attentive guardianship has made
him patron of the Church. As one who knew how to
embody the meaning of self-giving in life,
Joseph is also the patron of a happy death. His
service and sacrifices were only possible,
however, because they were sustained by a
greater love: “Every true vocation is born of
the gift of oneself, which is the fruit of
mature sacrifice. The priesthood and consecrated
life likewise require this kind of maturity.
Whatever our vocation, whether to marriage,
celibacy or virginity, our gift of self will not
come to fulfilment if it stops at sacrifice;
were that the case, instead of becoming a sign
of the beauty and joy of love, the gift of self
would risk being an expression of unhappiness,
sadness and frustration” (ibid., 7).
For Saint Joseph, service – as a concrete
expression of the gift of self – did not remain
simply a high ideal, but became a rule for daily
life. He strove to find and prepare a place
where Jesus could be born; he did his utmost to
protect him from Herod’s wrath by arranging a
hasty journey into Egypt; he immediately
returned to Jerusalem when Jesus was lost; he
supported his family by his work, even in a
foreign land. In short, he adapted to different
circumstances with the attitude of those who do
not grow discouraged when life does not turn out
as they wished; he showed the willingness
typical of those who live to serve. In this way,
Joseph welcomed life’s frequent and often
unexpected journeys: from Nazareth to Bethlehem
for the census, then to Egypt and again to
Nazareth, and every year to Jerusalem. Each time
he was willing to face new circumstances without
complaining, ever ready to give a hand to help
resolve situations. We could say that this was
the outstretched hand of our heavenly Father
reaching out to his Son on earth. Joseph cannot
fail to be a model for all vocations, called to
be the ever-active hands of the Father,
outstretched to his children.
I like to think, then, of Saint Joseph, the
protector of Jesus and of the Church, as the
protector of vocations. In fact, from his
willingness to serve comes his concern to
protect. The Gospel tells us that “Joseph got
up, took the child and his mother by night” (Mt
2:14), thus revealing his prompt concern for the
good of his family. He wasted no time fretting
over things he could not control, in order to
give full attention to those entrusted to his
care. Such thoughtful concern is the sign of a
true vocation, the testimony of a life touched
by the love of God. What a beautiful example of
Christian life we give when we refuse to pursue
our ambitions or indulge in our illusions, but
instead care for what the Lord has entrusted to
us through the Church! God then pours out his
Spirit and creativity upon us; he works wonders
in us, as he did in Joseph.
Together with God’s call, which makes our
greatest dreams come true, and our response,
which is made up of generous service and
attentive care, there is a third characteristic
of Saint Joseph’s daily life and our Christian
vocation, namely fidelity. Joseph is the
“righteous man” (Mt 1:19) who daily perseveres
in quietly serving God and his plans. At a
particularly difficult moment in his life, he
thoughtfully considered what to do (cf. v. 20).
He did not let himself be hastily pressured. He
did not yield to the temptation to act rashly,
simply following his instincts or living for the
moment. Instead, he pondered things patiently.
He knew that success in life is built on
constant fidelity to important decisions. This
was reflected in his perseverance in plying the
trade of a humble carpenter (cf. Mt 13:55), a
quiet perseverance that made no news in his own
time, yet has inspired the daily lives of
countless fathers, labourers and Christians ever
since. For a vocation – like life itself –
matures only through daily fidelity.
How is such fidelity nurtured? In the light of
God’s own faithfulness. The first words that
Saint Joseph heard in a dream were an invitation
not to be afraid, because God remains ever
faithful to his promises: “Joseph, son of David,
do not be afraid” (Mt1:20). Do not be afraid:
these words the Lord also addresses to you, dear
sister, and to you, dear brother, whenever you
feel that, even amid uncertainty and hesitation,
you can no longer delay your desire to give your
life to him. He repeats these words when,
perhaps amid trials and misunderstandings, you
seek to follow his will every day, wherever you
find yourself. They are words you will hear
anew, at every step of your vocation, as you
return to your first love. They are a refrain
accompanying all those who – like Saint Joseph –
say yes to God with their lives, through their
fidelity each day.
This fidelity is the secret of joy. A hymn in
the liturgy speaks of the “transparent joy”
present in the home of Nazareth. It the joy of
simplicity, the joy experienced daily by those
who care for what truly matters: faithful
closeness to God and to our neighbour. How good
it would be if the same atmosphere, simple and
radiant, sober and hopeful, were to pervade our
seminaries, religious houses and presbyteries! I
pray that you will experience this same joy,
dear brothers and sisters who have generously
made God the dream of your lives, serving him in
your brothers and sisters through a fidelity
that is a powerful testimony in an age of
ephemeral choices and emotions that bring no
lasting joy. May Saint Joseph, protector of
vocations, accompany you with his fatherly
heart!
Rome, from Saint John Lateran, 19 March 2021,
Feast of Saint Joseph
FRANCIS
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