Good Shepherd Vocations Sunday 2018
Pastoral Letter
 
Dear brothers and sisters,
Today we celebrate Good Shepherd Sunday and World Day of Prayer for Vocations to the Priest-hood and Religious Life.
 
Last month marked the fifth anniversary of the election of Pope Francis. Many of you will remember watching the television in excitement the evening he was elected. I remember seeing him come onto the balcony of St. Peter's for the first time and watching him look on serenely at the gathered crowds. I was soon searching Google and social media to find out about Jorge Bergoglio, this ‘cardinal from the ends of earth'.
Five years on we now know him as a father and are familiar with the key ideas he wants us to focus on as a Church. Straight away he challenged us to be committed to serve the poor, the marginalised and the lost. He encouraged us to make our parishes 'field hospitals' where those hurt by life could find comfort and support.
His latest challenge for us is now to practice 'spiritual discernment. This is a new idea that is not easy to understand. But in his Vocations Sunday Letter the Pope says discernment is really just the ability we all have to hear God's still, small voice for our lives, amid the hundreds of noises each day throws up at us.
To hear God’s quiet voice needs patience. We have to learn to read the story of our lives with His eyes, and not be afraid of where He is calling us. Discernment of our calling is for all of us, not just for our priests and nuns. God wants us all to discover His will for our lives: my part to play in God’s plan that he has not given to any other.
But discernment is also for us as communities, not just as individuals. That is what we realised in our Synod, as we discerned together God’s will for our diocese in the years to come. Next month our Making All Things New initiative will bring us together in open meetings to discern the concrete paths God is now leading us down in our local communities, as we embrace His challenge of new evanglisation and the full participation of our laity in our life and mission as a Church. Coming together we will discern how God is shaping our Catholic future, and I have every confidence your courageous discernment will open up for us a new, spiritual springtime in our life as a Diocesan family.
 
Parishes that are 'houses of prayer' never fail to give birth to vocations to the priesthood and religious life, and to nourish and sustain them. I pray that, in the months ahead, our parishes also become 'houses of discernment' where we uncover God's will for our own lives and our collective responsibility for the renewal of our communities, for the good of our children and our grandchildren, in times to come.

May Mary Most Holy, who accepted and experienced the Word of God made flesh, protect us and accompany us always on our journey of discernment.
With assurance of prayers and blessings,
 
+ John