15 Catholic Prayer for Vocations: A Guide to Vocation Prayers and Discernment.

Have you ever wondered what God’s plan for your life is? Do you feel called to a specific vocation, such as priesthood, religious life, marriage, or single life? Or are you still unsure about your vocation and need some guidance from God?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then this blog post is for you. In this post, we will share with you 15 Catholic prayers for vocations that can help you to discern God’s call for your life and to live out your vocation to the fullest. We will also provide some tips on how to pray for vocations and some benefits of praying for vocations.

What are vocations and why are they important?

A vocation is a calling from God to a specific way of life that leads us to holiness and happiness. God has created each of us with a unique purpose and mission in this world, and He invites us to discover and embrace our vocation through prayer, discernment, and action.

Vocations are important because they are the means by which we fulfill God’s will for our lives and contribute to His kingdom. By living out our vocation faithfully, we can grow in love of God and neighbor, serve the Church and society, and glorify God with our talents and gifts.

15 Catholic prayers for vocations

Here are 15 Catholic prayers for vocations that you can use in your daily prayer life. These prayers cover different aspects of vocations, such as specific vocations, general discernment, and overcoming challenges.

Prayers for Personal Discernment

These prayers are meant to help you in your own process of discernment. They can help you to open your heart to God’s call, to ask for His grace and guidance, and to trust in His providence.

1. Prayer of Abandonment by Blessed Charles de Foucauld

Father, I abandon myself into your hands; do with me what you will. Whatever you may do, I thank you: I am ready for all, I accept all. Let only your will be done in me, and in all your creatures – I wish no more than this, O Lord. Into your hands I commend my soul: I offer it to you with all the love of my heart, for I love you, Lord, and so need to give myself, to surrender myself into your hands without reserve, and with boundless confidence, for you are my Father. Amen.

This prayer expresses a total surrender to God’s will, trusting that He knows what is best for us and that He will lead us to our true happiness. It is a prayer of detachment from our own plans and preferences, and of attachment to God’s love and providence.

2. Prayer for Discernment by St. Ignatius of Loyola

Lord, teach me to be generous. Teach me to serve you as you deserve; to give and not to count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds, to toil and not to seek for rest, to labor and not to ask for reward, save that of knowing that I do your will. Amen.

This prayer summarizes the spirit of St. Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises, a method of discernment that helps us to recognize God’s movements in our hearts and minds. It is a prayer of generosity, service, courage, perseverance, and indifference to worldly rewards. It is a prayer that asks God to help us do His will, whatever it may be.

3. Prayer for Guidance by Thomas Merton

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone. Amen.

This prayer expresses a humble and honest admission of our limitations and uncertainties in discerning God’s will. It also expresses a confident and hopeful trust in God’s presence and guidance. It is a prayer that acknowledges that our desire to please God is already a sign of His grace at work in us.

4. Prayer for Vocation by Pope Benedict XVI

Lord Jesus, as You once called the first disciples to make them fishers of men, let your sweet invitation continue to resound: Come follow Me! Give young men and women the grace of responding quickly to your voice. Support our bishops, priests and consecrated people in their apostolic labor. Grant perseverance to our seminarians and to all those who are carrying out the ideal of a life totally consecrated to your service. Awaken in our community a missionary eagerness. Lord, send workers to your harvest and do not allow humanity to be lost for the lack of pastors, missionaries and people dedicated to the cause of the Gospel. Mary, Mother of the Church, the model of every vocation, help us to say “Yes” to the Lord who calls us to cooperate in the divine plan of salvation. Amen.

This prayer was composed by Pope Benedict XVI for the 43rd World Day of Prayer for Vocations in 2006. It is a prayer that asks Jesus to continue to call young men and women to follow Him in the priesthood or religious life. It is also a prayer that supports and encourages those who are already responding to God’s call. It is a prayer that invokes Mary’s intercession and example as the Mother of the Church and the model of every vocation.

5. Prayer for Trust by St. Teresa of Avila

Let nothing disturb you,
Let nothing frighten you,
All things are passing away:
God never changes.
Patience obtains all things
Whoever has God lacks nothing;
God alone suffices. Amen.

This prayer is attributed to St. Teresa of Avila, a Doctor of the Church and a great mystic and reformer of the Carmelite Order. It is a prayer that helps us to overcome fear, anxiety, and discouragement in our discernment. It is a prayer that reminds us that God is our ultimate goal and our only source of peace and joy.

Prayers for Those Who Are Discerning

These prayers are meant to help you pray for others who are discerning their vocation. They can help you to intercede for them, to support them, and to bless them.

6. Prayer for Seminarians by St. John Paul II

O Lord Jesus Christ, great High Priest, I pray that You call many worthy souls to Your holy priesthood. Enlighten our Bishop in the choice of candidates, the Spiritual Director in molding them, and the professors in instructing them. Lead the seminarians daily in Your unerring footsteps; so that they may become priests who are models of purity, possessors of wisdom and heroes of sacrifice; steeped in humility and aflame with love for God and man; apostles of Your glory and sanctifiers of souls. Amen.

This prayer was composed by St. John Paul II when he was a seminarian himself. It is a prayer that asks Jesus, the great High Priest, to call many worthy souls to His holy priesthood. It is also a prayer that prays for all those who are involved in the formation of seminarians, such as the bishop, the spiritual director, and the professors. It is a prayer that expresses the ideal qualities of a priest, such as purity, wisdom, sacrifice, humility, love, apostleship, and sanctity.

7. Prayer for Religious Sisters by St. Therese of Lisieux

O Jesus,
I pray for your faithful and fervent sisters;
I pray for your unfaithful and tepid sisters;
I pray for your sisters who are laboring at home or abroad in distant mission fields.
I pray for your tempted sisters;
I pray for your lonely sisters;
I pray for your young sisters;
I pray for your dying sisters;
I pray for you in all things,
my beloved sisters.
Amen.

This prayer was composed by St. Therese of Lisieux, a Doctor of the Church and a Carmelite nun who had a great love for her religious sisters. It is a prayer that covers all kinds of religious sisters, from the faithful and fervent to the unfaithful and tepid, from the laboring and missionary to the tempted and lonely, from the young and dying to the beloved ones. It is a prayer that shows solidarity, compassion, and affection for all those who have consecrated their lives to Jesus.

8. Prayer for Religious Brothers by St. Francis of Assisi

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.