Vocations Awareness Week 2024

8th – 15th September 2024

Apostles of Hope

Every year, the Church in Scotland sets aside a week in which we are invited to reflect on our Christian vocation, which flows from our the call made to us in Baptism to grow in holiness and in service of others. We are also invited to pray for those who might be considering a call to follow a particular path of service within the Christian family, in the priesthood, as a deacon or in religious life. Lastly, this week invites some to consider whether God might be calling them to follow one of these particular paths. So, we might:

•     pray for a renewed and strengthened sense of vocation among all God’s People;

•     consider what my own vocation is in life and how I might be responding to the call that God has made to me;

•     pray for a generous response in the hearts of those called to serve the Church in priesthood, consecrated life and diaconate;

•     consider – as appropriate to my own stage and situation in life – whether I might not actually be one of those called to be a priest, a religious or a deacon or to encourage someone, whom I think might be showing the signs that they have such a vocation, to consider discerning or pursuing such a call;

•     pray for and offer support and encouragement to our priests, the religious women and men who serve in our communities, the deacons who serve our parishes and dioceses and our seminarians and others in formation or discernment of their vocation in the Church.

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Earlier this year, in his message for the World Day of Prayer for Vocations in May, Pope Francis invited all of us to be “Apostles of Hope”. In particular, he called on young people to draw close to Jesus and find in him the Hope they need for their future, in the face of the challenges our world throws up to us, and to become witnesses to that hope by their actions, dedication and service of others. Every vocation is a call to “sow seeds of hope and build peace”, he said. If this is true of every Christian vocation, it must surely be especially true of the vocation to serve in the Church as preachers, teachers, ministers – in other words in a particular way it must be true of those called to priesthood, diaconate and to consecrated life to be witnesses, messengers and agents of that hope and peace which we find in Jesus Christ to others.

Our schools reflection this year looks at how some particular figures in the life of the Church, such as the priest St Maximilian Kolbe, have been just such “Apostles of Hope”. In addition, for the Holy Year which begins shortly and runs through 2025, Pope Francis has chosen the theme “Pilgrims of Hope”. Our 2024 Vocations Awareness Week, therefore, will also help us prepare for this special year of grace.

We reflect and pray about what it means to be witnesses to hope, how we can listen for the call God makes to us and rediscover the hope and joy he brings us, and how our call to be Christians, in whatever specific vocation we live it, is a call to bring hope to our troubled and often despairing world. But reflecting too on the vocation to serve Christ and the Church in the priesthood, in consecrated life and in the diaconate, we invite some to consider how they might be called to bring Christ, his message and the hope he offers to us in those particular ways.

Below are some PowerPoint resources which might be useful for upper primary school classes or R.E. classes at the different stages of secondary school (S1-3 and S4-6) and for youth groups during this week:

There are also some Liturgical Resources below to help reflect the themes for Vocations Awareness Week at Mass in parish or school from Sunday 8th to Sunday 15th September 2024: