IFTTT Autopost 
The Fourth Sunday of Easter is sometimes called Good Shepherd Sunday. In the Catholic Church, we celebrate this day as World Day of Prayer for Vocations.
The Scripture passage underlying this day is from the Gospels of Matthew (9: 37-38) and Luke (10: 1-2): Jesus reminds his followers that the harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few. Therefore, we must pray for an increase in workers.
And although every human has one or more vocations or “calls” from God, this day focuses on specific Church vocations such as the call to the ordained ministries (priesthood and diaconate); the consecrated life in all its forms (male and female religious life, societies of apostolic life, consecrated virginity, & secular institutes); and to the missionary life.
Today is an incredibly interesting time to be a priest, permanent deacon, Sister, or Brother, for while the number of Catholics increases, the number of priests, Sisters, and Brothers are rapidly decreasing. Today, many orders have deliberately stopped taking candidates, opting to simply go out of existence. Others are combining with other orders. Others have gone out of existence.
Fortunately, however, Church leaders are acutely aware of the “crisis” in religious vocations. The big question is: will they respond in harmony to the Holy Spirit? Many people believe that there are many people called to the priesthood and permanent diaconate, but Church leaders have put up obstacles preventing them from serving. Profound paradigm shifts will be necessary to remove such obstacles. Are we ready as “Church” to answer the call?
In the photo above, we see priests and transitional deacons of the San Francisco de Asís Deanery of the Archdiocese of Tegucigalpa. The Mass was held on December 5, 2025, in the pueblo of Ojojona, F.M., Honduras with Father Gustavo as the Celebrant. This was Father Gustavo’s farewell Mass, for he was leaving his parish of Sabanagrande to become pastor of the parish of Santa Teresa de Calcuta in Tegucigalpa. From left to right in the photo we see: Transitional Deacon Fernando; Fr. Darwin; Transitional Deacon Leo; Fr. Tony (our dean); Fr. Gustavo; a priest from Haiti studying to become a Discalced Carmelite priest whose name I don’t know; me (Fr. Bob); and Fr. Cecilio.
