The Church observes the World Day of Prayer for Vocations on the Fourth Sunday of Easter, also known as Good Shepherd Sunday.
In his 2022 Message for the World Day of Prayer for Vocations, Pope Francis emphasized the fact that vocations have a communal as well as a personal dimension and the need for the Church to “become increasingly synodal”.
The Holy Father cautioned against a restrictive understanding of the term “vocation”. He said, “The word ‘vocation’ should not be understood restrictively, as referring simply to those who follow the Lord through a life of special consecration. All of us are called to share in Christ’s mission to reunite a fragmented humanity and to reconcile it with God.”
In his homily during Holy Mass to conclude RECOWA Plenary Assembly, Archbishop Palmer-Buckle said, “For some time now, Vocations Sunday is a day of prayer not only for vocations to the Holy priesthood or consecrated life, but for vocations in general and professions of all kinds be it vocation to married life or to any professional calling like to be a lawyer, a politician, a teacher, a businesswoman, a doctor, a nurse, a military or policeman, vocation to public or civil service, traditional leaders, catechists, choir master.”
“On this day, especially in the Church, we are to pray and reflect on what each one is called to be according to the eternal wisdom of God, who created each and every one of us and created us in his own image and likeness,” the 71-year-old Ghanaian Archbishop said.
The Local Ordinary of Ghana’s Cape Coast Archdiocese further said, “On this Good Shepherd Sunday, Holy Mother Church would like us to hear the voice of Christ the Good Shepherd in our very being, in our soul, with the help of the Holy Spirit and in the light of the Holy Spirit, to follow Christ Jesus, fulfilling God's purpose in our lives so that we may inherit eternal life one day.”
Making reference to the Holy Father’s message for the 59th World Day of Prayer for Vocations, Archbishop Palmer-Buckle underscored the need for listening.
He said, “Pope Francis is inviting you and me, he is inviting us, especially the pastors and those in consecrated life, to know that because everyone is created in the image and likeness of God, each and every person has a calling to listen and hear the voice of God and following in the footsteps of Christ Jesus to make his or her contribution of the image of God to blossom by his or her vocation in order to help humanity get a still better and fuller image of God by contributing his or her part in the church's mission of evangelization.”
“Vocation is about making God's dream come true, making God's dream for each and every one of us come true. Making God's plan for each and every one of us come true so that we, answering that may bring the glory of God to our brothers and sisters,” he added in reference to Pope Francis’s Message.
The Ghanaian Catholic Archbishop who has been at the helm of Cape Coast Archdiocese since his installation in July 2018 further said, “Every vocation is also a calling to live the life of the Good Shepherd … one who knows his or her sheep and who works in order that others may have life and have it to the full.”
