“The family must educate the children for life in such a way that each one may fully perform his or her role according to the vocation received from God. Indeed, the family that is open to transcendent values, that serves its brothers and sisters with joy, that fulfills its duties with generous fidelity, and is aware of its daily sharing in the mystery of the glorious Cross of Christ, becomes the primary and most excellent seed-bed of vocations to a life of consecration to the Kingdom of God.” ( The Role of the Family in the Modern World , 53).
In the Words of our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, the family is the “seedbed of vocations.” “Seedbed” is a provocative and colorful term, calling to mind the richness of a garden, freshly turned, the dirt still moist, holding the promise of new growth from seeds recently sown. Seedbed is also the literal translation of “seminary” from the Latin term “ semen ” meaning “seed.” In another place, the Pope refers to the family as the first “seminary' for the formation of young people in the ways of faith. The family is the seedbed and seminary where the seed of faith begins to bloom and the vocation of each child begins to unfold.
How is it that a seed, planted in fresh soil, comes to sprout, develop, blossom, and produce fruit? There are many factors that are necessary to bring about this marvelous growth, not the least of which is an attentive gardener. When speaking about the development of vocations within the seminary of our families, we must first recognize that God is the ultimate Gardener who sows the seed and nurtures each child's vocation. God, in His wisdom and charity, creates each child with the gifts, talents, and desires to serve Him and His holy people in a particular way. Parents, you are less the gardener and more the steward or caretaker laboring under the guidance and direction of the Gardener Himself. How much greater the responsibility of the steward who has been entrusted with such a rich and precious garden as the children of God? Parents have the duty of caring for these “seedlings” and their development in the faith. The stewards – parents – are to guide these seedlings towards full maturity, helping them to know and live their vocation.
Parents, as the caretakers of God's little ones, provide the necessary conditions for their children to seek, know, and follow the call – the vocation – that God has for them. Every child has a vocation! Yes, everyone has a vocation to be a disciple of Jesus Christ that takes on a personally unique manifestation in the call to marriage, consecrated life, or priesthood.
It is within the seedbed of the family that the environment is cultivated in which a child's vocation begins to grow and unfold. That environment includes a life of individual and family prayer – the life-breath of the call to holiness. In addition to prayer the other essential and indispensable elements to nurturing vocations within the family include family devotions, family catechesis, service, life in the sacraments and Sunday Mass. On top of these, good stewards of God's seedlings will provide the opportunity for their children to develop relationships with their parish priests or consecrated men and women by inviting their pastors to family meals or celebrations, making pilgrimages to convents or monasteries, and encouraging their children to participate in vocations events such as the Diocesan Vocations Camp: Totus Tuus . There is much labor to be done in a garden that produces beautiful fruit. How much greater the care necessary for a family to produce the fruit of a beautiful vocation?
Jesus says, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest” ( Lk 10:2). This harvest of vocations will be plentiful insofar as families live up to their calling as rich and fertile “seedbeds” of vocations.
