Vocation Reflections Launch Out into the Deep
Vocation Reflections by Pope John Paul ll
Do Not Be Afraid
If any of you dear young men and women, hear the Lord’s inner call to give yourselves completely to him in order to love him with an undivided heart, do not be held back by doubts or fears. Say “yes” with courage and without reserve, trusting him who is faithful to his promises. Did he not assure those who had left everything for his sake that they would have a hundredfold in this life and eternal life hereafter?
World Youth Day, Rome 2000


Written in the Book of Life
All human beings, from their mothers’ womb, belong to God who searches them and knows them, who forms them and knits them together with His own hands, who gazes on them when they are tiny shapeless embryos and already sees in them the adults of tomorrow, whose days are numbered and whose vocation is even now written in the “book of life”.
Evangelium Vitae, 20
The Desires of Your Heart
It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives, the will to follow and ideal, the refusal to allow yourselves to be ground down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and more fraternal.
World Youth Day, Rome 2000

Reflections by Pope Francis
I am counting on you to wake up the world
Before all else, the Gospel invites us to respond to the God of love who saves us, to see God in others and to go forth from ourselves to seek the good of others.
Let us ask ourselves today: “Are we open to God’s surprises?”
The world tells us to seek success, power and money; God tells us to seek humility, service and love.
A vocation is not the result of planning, but an encounter with God that changes your life.


Dear young people, do not bury your talents, the gifts that God has given you!
Do not be afraid to dream of great things.
No one can grow if he does not accept his smallness.
I see clearly that the thing the Church needs most today is the ability to heal wounds and to warm the hearts of the faithful.
Find new ways to spread the word of God to every corner of the world.
Have the courage to be truly happy.
All above from a variety of writings by Pope Francis