Bishop Alphonsus Cullinan, Chair of the Bishops’ Council for Vocations, is asking individuals and parishes to #Pray4Vocations each day at 4pm during the coming year.

Bishop Cullinan said, “We have recently completed the Season of Christmas and returned to what we refer to in the liturgical year as Ordinary Time. We have also just begun a brand new year which stretches out before us as a year full of potential and hope. As we return to Ordinary Time we are asking individuals and parishes to make an extraordinary effort to pray for vocations to the priesthood.“I am inviting you to join me every day at 4.00pm to say a short prayer for vocations. You might say an ‘Our Father’, a ‘Hail Mary’ or a ‘Glory Be’. You might have a preferred prayer of your own. We have some wonderful prayers available on our website which you might like to look through and choose from. Whatever prayer you decide on, we are asking you to pause and #Pray4Vocations at 4.00pm each day.”Bishop Cullinan went on to say, “Pope Francis reminds us that ‘no vocation is born of itself or lives for itself. A vocation flows from the heart of God and blossoms in the good soil of faithful people’. Prayer is the very breath of our faith and so I ask you to please make a conscious effort for 2022, in parishes and homes, to pray for vocations to the priesthood.”You can find out more about the #Pray4Vocations initiative on www.vocations.ie.