God says: “I know the plans I have in mind for you – it is the Lord who speaks – plans for peace, not disaster, reserving a future full of hope for you.”(Jr 29:11)

Pope Francis wrote to the world about Saint Joseph.In his letter, Patris corde (With a Father’s Heart), he reflects further on Saint Joseph and vocation. In his message, Pope Francis said: “God looks on the heart (cf. 1 Sam 16:7), and in Saint Joseph he recognised the heart of a father, able to give and generate life in the midst of daily routines. Vocations have this same goal: to beget and renew lives every day. 

At St Augustine’s we are passionate about helping the children to understand the meaning of vocation and begin to assist the children in discerning theirs. 

What is a vocation?

A call… The word comes from the Latin word ‘vocare’ which means ‘to call’. Vocation, then, is about a call or a calling in people’s lives

A call from… The call from God. We believe that God has called people to play a particular role in his plan of salvation for the world.

A call for… Everyone, including you. Many people only use the term ‘vocation’ to talk about priests, monks and religious sisters. But the call is for everyone. We believe that God calls each and every person into existence and then calls us to be a living sign of his love for the world. We are created out of love and we are created to love.

A call to… This means that for Christians, a vocation is not just something that God calls us to do, it is also the person God calls us to be.

How can I discover my vocation?

What are the qualities you see in others that you would most like to have yourselves? What kind of person would you really like to be?

 

Pope Francis said “God looks on the heart,” he said, “and in Saint Joseph He recognized the heart of a father, able to give and generate life in the midst of daily routines.”

Vocations, he added, have the same goal of begetting and renewing the lives of others.

The Year of St Joseph 2021

St Joseph’s fatherhood of Jesus is “the earthly shadow of the heavenly Father.”

Fathers are not born, but made. A man does not become a father simply by bringing a child into the world, but by taking up the responsibility to care for that child.

Pope Francis

On December 8, 2020, the 150th anniversary of the declaration of Saint Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church, Pope Francis issued an Apostolic Letter entitled Patris corde (“With a Father’s Heart”). In that beautiful letter, the Holy Father proclaimed a “Year of Saint Joseph” from December 8, 2020, to December 8, 2021.

To support your prayer at home:

Each month we will take a different theme to reflect on inspired by St Joseph.
We hope that you will be able to use these ideas to grow in faith during this special year.

Included are things to do with resource ideas. If you don’t have access to all of these things at home, we hope that the suggestions might give your family inspiration to do something to explore the gospel and themes.

In school, we will also be involved in lots of exciting activities. We will let your family know what we are doing with regular updates on our school website, newsletters and through social media.

This is the family prayer sheet for March:

March YoSJ family prayer resource