Parents have a crucial role to play in fostering vocations to the priesthood in the lives of their children. They serve as Christian examples to their children, pray and sacrifice for them, teach them the faith and bring them to the sacraments, and serve as a witness of fidelity in their own vocation to marriage.

Parents can build a home environment that nourishes faith in a loving God, encourages prayer, and develops trust among family members. That environment will nurture the freedom that their children need to be open to the Lord’s will in their lives, including the possibility of a priestly vocation. Children may speak first to their parents about the possibility of a vocation to the priesthood, and in that crucial moment they may determine their son’s future, his openness to the joy of following God.

It is an act of generosity – sometimes heroic generosity – to pray for vocations to the priesthood and religious life among your children. Such trusting prayer, however, is richly rewarded by God, and will prove the source of immeasurable joy in the lives of the parents, their children, and those whom they may one serve as a priest or consecrated religious person.

More information about the role of parents in fostering vocations may be found on the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops here.