Saint’s message to parents

Father Joseph Lopez, JCL, is Vocations Director for the Diocese of Corpus Christi.

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During his 27-year pontificate, St. John Paul II spent a great deal of time talking about vocations. He was not only talking to young, discerning men and women, either. He had messages for parents too.

If, in your ministry, you have ever encountered parents who are skeptical or concerned that their child is considering a vocation to the priesthood or religious life, keep in mind what the Holy Father had to say about it.

For man, to generate a child is above all to “receive it from God.” It is a matter of welcoming from God as a gift the child that is generated. For this reason, children belong first to God, and then to their parents: and this is a truth, which is rich in implications for both parents and children.

To be instruments of the heavenly Father in the work of forming their own children—here is found the inviolable limit that parents must respect in carrying out their mission. They must never consider themselves “owners” of their children, but rather they must educate them, paying constant attention to the privileged relationship their children have with the Father in heaven. It is his business that they must “be about” more than that of their earthly parents.

The family is for this reason also the first and fundamental setting in which the Christian Vocation sprouts, is formed and is manifested. Just as Jesus’ vocation was manifested in the family of Nazareth, so every vocation today is born and manifests itself in the family. And when this general vocation is revealed as a particular calling to “leave everything” then the Christian family is revealed there also, and above all here, as the privileged place where the seed placed by God in the heart of the children can take root and mature; the place where the participation of the parents in the priestly mission of Christ himself is revealed in its most elevated degree. 

Vocation touches the very roots of the human soul. It is an interior calling of God directed to the person: to the unique and irreplaceable person.

There are great books out there about promotion of vocations that would be a perfect addition to anyone’s toolkit, one of which is “The Meaning of Vocation: In the Words of John Paul II.” It is a collection of the Holy Father’s talks on vocations throughout the years.  

Thank you for all that you do to help build a culture of vocations in our diocese.