Every call awaits a response. In the traditional Christian vocabulary, the word "vocation" has been employee used to refer particularly to the priestly life and to the religious life (today more broadly called consecrated life). But, as the Second Vatican Council wished to declare in its constitution Lumen gentium, in the Church, "all, both those who belong to the hierarchy and those who are its shepherds, are called to holiness" (n. 39); in other words, "all the faithful, in whatever state or condition, are called to the fullness of the Christian life and to the perfection of charity" (n. 40).

This is the common Christian vocation. All Christians are called by God to manifest his love in the world, according to the conditions of life of each one. The word "Church" means precisely vocation, the common call of many. And "Christian" is a name of vocation: called to participate in the life and the mission statement of Christ.

But there is still more. All people, and not only Christians, are called by God to encounter him, to discover his love, to allow themselves to be transformed by it and to bring it to others. Human existence is always a call from Love to love.

workshop In his message for the 49th World Day of Prayer for Vocations (April 29, 2012), Benedict XVI writes: "Every creature, in particular every human person, is the fruit of a thought and an act of God's love, an immense, faithful, eternal love (cf. Jer 31:3)".

Already in his first encyclical he explained that God's salvific plan is a plan of love, which is narrated in the Bible as a story of love: "He goes out to us meeting, he tries to attract us, reaching back to the Last Supper, to the Heart pierced on the Cross, to the apparitions of the Risen One and to the great works by which, through the action of the Apostles, he guided the journey of the nascent Church. Nor has the Lord been absent from the successive history of the Church: he always comes to us at meeting through the people in whom he is reflected; through his Word, in the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist" (Deus Caritas Est, n. 17).

The Church exists to proclaim the beauty of this love. The Pope writes in this message that "the Christian community itself becomes a manifestation of God's love, which is the guardian of every call" (Deus Caritas Est, n. 17). And this can be applied to the universal Church as well as to the local Churches, and also to the movements and to all ecclesial realities.

He even affirms that "this dynamic, which responds to the demands of the new commandment of Jesus, can be carried out in an eloquent and singular way in Christian families, whose love is an expression of the love of Christ who gave himself for his Church (cf. Eph 5:32)". He specifies that every family, "a community of life and love"(Gaudium et Spes, 48), is a privileged place for human and Christian training , and can become the best "seminar" (which means "seedbed") for vocations, to the extent that families are "houses and schools of communion".

It is clear that this is not meant to denaturalize the family, making it what it is not. On the contrary, this must be the better horizon: communion of life and love, communion that means union in diversity, and participation in the common task of living as persons and as Christians.

Benedict XVI points out that in the context of "openness to God's love and as a fruit of this love, all vocations are born and grow", with the financial aid of prayer and the sacraments, particularly the Eucharist. And that the love of God is expressed, discovered and learned in the love of neighbor, "especially towards the most needy and those who suffer". Love of God and love of neighbor are "two loves" that "spring from the same divine source and are oriented towards it".

To this purpose it is worth remembering that, in the Church, the Christian vocation is lived in three main ways or paths: the majority of Christians, the lay faithful, have the vocation to order temporal realities (the work, the family, culture, etc.) to the Kingdom of God as if from within (says the Council) those same realities. Others, the sacred ministers (bishops, priests and deacons) make Christ's life and action present to others. Religious or consecrated life gives public witness to the faith by means of specific vows and by developing its corresponding gifts and charisms.

All Christians, one and all, need each other. It is important for each one to discover his or her specific vocation. And then, to be faithful to that vocation, as to what is dearest to us, to what gives meaning to life, because it makes the small and ordinary things great, and the great or extraordinary things easier and more bearable.

On other occasions the Pope has emphasized that the Christian vocation implies the commitment to collaborate in the integral human development . This belongs to "charity in truth". For while all men and women perceive within themselves a call to truth and love, the Gospel is the greatest light and the greatest impetus for this task. And every Christian carries it out according to his or her concrete vocation and possibilities (cf. the 2009 encyclical Caritas in veritate).

Some fathers and mothers wonder how to act in relation to the concrete vocation of their children. That role could be summarized in these terms: to orient and support, with their committee and their prayer. They should guide their children to discover their vocation, whether they are inclined towards the priestly, religious or lay vocation (and this, either in marriage or in celibacy at the service of others through a professional work , or in some charitable work). They should not interfere to the point of forcing their children to make a certain choice. In no case should they be obstacles for the children to fulfill the will of God and the service to others.

To the extent that the children need it (and in some way they always need some of this), parents should advise them on their path, after considering before God the vocation of their children, and if necessary in consultation with prudent people of Christian criteria. In this committee they must take into account reason (ethics) and faith, the concrete needs of the Church and the world, and the aptitudes of their children, whom they are supposed to know well. Moreover, their responsibility does not end there, but throughout their lives they should support them with prayer and good Christian example.