The 63rd World Day of Prayer for Vocations will be celebrated this year on 26 April 2026, the Fourth Sunday of Easter, traditionally known as \u2018Good Shepherd Sunday\u2019.<\/p>\n
This annual event invites the whole community to reflect on the theme of vocation, and to pray that each person may discover the seed of life that God has placed deep within every heart, so that we may take it in our hands and bring it to bloom within us.<\/p>\n
The theme chosen for this year, \u201cStrive for holiness, wherever you are\u201d, draws inspiration from the words of Pope Leo XIV addressed to young people during the Jubilee of 2025.<\/p>\n
At the heart of this reflection is the figure of Jesus as the \u201cgood shepherd\u201d (\u1f41 \u03c0\u03bf\u03b9\u03bc\u1f74\u03bd \u1f41 \u03ba\u03b1\u03bb\u03cc\u03c2, Jn 10:11), that is, as the one who not only guides and is ready to lay down his life for his sheep, but also captivates, to the point that those who look to him discover that life is truly beautiful if one follows him.<\/p>\n
Let us then learn to know ourselves better, and to know more closely the God who has called us, who knows us intimately, who is \u201cmore intimate than my own intimacy\u201d, as St Augustine says, and who has planned for each of us a unique path of holiness and service.<\/p>\n
The World Day of Prayer for Vocations is a moment of grace to commit ourselves to creating favourable environments within families, parishes and communities, so that the gift of vocation may be welcomed and nurtured, and lead us to a life lived to the full.<\/p>\n
Through daily prayer and meditation on the Word, we are invited to begin anew by cultivating our inner life and silence, and to entrust ourselves with confidence to God\u2019s plan of love, certain that every vocation is a journey of maturation towards happiness and salvation for ourselves and for the whole world.<\/p>\n