Make coming Vocation Month fruitful, bishop urges faithful

MANILA, Philippines - With Vocation Month due to start this Monday, Digos Bishop Guillermo Afable urged his flock over the weekend to make the month-long celebration of Vocation Month fruitful. In a pastoral letter, Afable invited his people to organize something together to launch this very important month-long celebration. "I strongly suggest that you engage our youth and the children of your Parish, the School and the small Christian communities and your family so that they become active subjects of the Vocation Month," Afable said in his letter, excerpts of which were posted Saturday night on the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines Web site (www.cbcpnews.com). Afable mentioned in his letter that the whole Church considers the pastoral work of promoting vocations as one of her vital ministries. He also encouraged the people to reflect on the theme of the "2008 World Day of Prayer for Vocations" proposed last April by Pope Benedict XVI. "The discovery, birth, development and care for vocations fall on the whole Christian community. During the month of September, it is customary for us here in the Diocese of Digos to highlight the Pastoral Care of Vocations," he said. Also, he said vocation month is a special time for me to remember all brother priests, deacons and the consecrated persons with joy and thanksgiving. He reminded them to show selfless love and dedication to the mission entrusted to them through the Church and the particular ecclesial communities they belong to. "We are all beneficiaries of a special divine predilection. Precisely because we are earthen vessels, let us continue to be awed by the tremendous grace upon grace we all continue to receive from the Father in Heaven," Afable said. "We priests and consecrated persons in this local Church, realize and rededicate ourselves to the pursuit of holiness so that we become for all to behold, a light of the world and a salt of the earth," he added. He also asked the clergy to consciously and intentionally pursue to live and minister individually and collectively with integrity, transparency and accountability to God and to the Church. "Such a life witness cannot but edify and impress those whom God is calling. Let our light shine." Afable also called on seminarians and those in various stages of formation in the consecrated life "to be ever faithful to their calling in the Church." "Devote yourselves wholeheartedly to your initial formation towards personal transformation and integration. May you always remember with joy all those who sacrifice for you materially and spiritually –your families, formators, benefactors and Christian communities and friends," he said. - GMANews.TV