Vocations Crucifix
“The family is the primary and most excellent seed-bed of vocations.” – Pope Saint John Paul II
You and your family are invited to host our Vocations Crucifix in your home for one week and pray for vocations – to the priesthood, diaconate, religious life and marriage. Each week a different family will receive the Vocations Crucifix at the end of Mass. It should be returned the following Sunday at least 15 minutes before that same Mass so it can be given to another family.
Call the Parish Office to sign up at 703-590-0030.
Our Vocations Crucifix is a means of fostering prayer for vocations among our parish families and reminds us of God’s special call for each one of us, a call to holiness rooted in our baptism. Each member of our parish family has a responsibility to pray for and encourage vocations to the priesthood, diaconate, religious life and marriage.
The purpose of the Crucifix is to provide a focal point for our prayer. Every vocation is a participation in the redemptive love of Jesus Christ who gave his life on the Cross to save us from sin and death and open for us the door to eternal life. Through our particular vocation we, in imitation of Christ, make a gift of ourselves in loving service to one another and to God. “Man, who is the only creature on earth which God willed for itself, cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself” (Gaudium et Spes, 24).
Jesus tells us to “ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest” (Matthew 9:38). Let us join together in praying to the Lord of the Harvest that he call forth priests and religious from among our families and that each of our families may be holy, set apart to do God’s will.
Prayers
“It is the duty of the whole Christian community to foster vocations so that the needs of the sacred ministry are sufficiently met in the entire Church.” - Code of Cannon Law #233.1