Vocations Awareness Week 2022

11th-18th September 2022

Vocations and the Gift of the Eucharist

Every year, the Church in Scotland sets aside a week in which we are all asked to reflect on our vocation within the Christian family, a vocation which flows from our shared Baptismal vocation to grow in holiness and in service of others.  In particular, we are asked:

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

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

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

•     to 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;

•     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;

•     to 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.

As we emerge this year from the shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic, our bishops have asked Catholics in Scotland to consider in a deeper way the meaning and the place of the Mass and the sacrament of the Eucharist in our lives. Having experienced times when we were unable to be together at Mass or to receive Holy Communion, we realise just how important it is to us. However helpful the online Masses and opportunities were at the time, we recognise that they are no substitute for actually coming together to pray and celebrate and, in a most important way, to celebrate Mass and receive the sacrament of Christ’s Body and Blood in person. Our bishops wrote us earlier this year to remind us of the obligation we have to attend Mass on a Sunday once again, and to renew our sense of the importance of receiving Jesus in the sacrament.

As a result, we realise and reflect in this Vocations Awareness Week on the meaning and importance of the Eucharist and pray that we will always have sufficient priests to offer Holy Mass for and with us and parish communities rooted in the Eucharist and in the faith that Jesus is with us, really present, when we come together.

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