Today is the World Day of Prayer for Vocations.  I have been spending some time reading and praying with the message Pope Francis has issued for this day, which is also Good Shepherd Sunday.  Pope Francis reflects on the task Jesus sets before his disciples in Luke 10:2 to pray that God may send laborers for the harvest.

Jesus command came in the context of his sending out missionaries. … Since the Church “is by her very nature missionary” (Ad Gentes, 2), the Christian vocation is necessarily born of the experience of mission. Hearing and following the voice of Christ the Good Shepherd, means letting ourselves be attracted and guided by him, in consecration to him; it means allowing the Holy Spirit to draw us into this missionary dynamism, awakening within us the desire, the joy and the courage to offer our own lives in the service of the…