May is traditionally Mary's month. Perhaps your parish could schedule an "Hour of Prayer With Mary" and pray together the Rosary and the Litany for Vocations.

Mother of the Word Incarnate, help us to become more aware of the need for vocations...
O, Mary, intercede for us!

Mother of God, grant that others, like yourself, may say "yes" to your Son's call to the religious life...
O, Mary, intercede for us!

Mother of the Church, may many workers be added to the service of your Son's Church...
O, Mary, intercede for us!

Lady of Mercy, enlighten our minds so we my respond to our responsibility as parents to foster vocations in our own homes...
O, Mary, intercede for us!

Queen of Heaven, help our young to follow your Son's footsteps...
O, Mary, intercede for us!

Blessed Mother, open our hearts and minds to love our priests and religious, to recognize their humanness and their needs as we do our own...
O, Mary, intercede for us!

Hail Mary, help our children to bind themselves closer to God, through a vocation in the Church...
O, Mary, intercede for us!

Queen of Angels, give our Church true disciples who will serve as priests, sisters, and brothers...
O, Mary, intercede for us!

Dearest Mother, keep our young open to hear God's call...
O, Mary, intercede for us!

Mother of Love, make us more open to the love our priests and religious have for us...
O, Mary, intercede for us!

Our Lady Queen of Heaven, help us to recognize that God alone does not call...
O, Mary, intercede for us!

Holy Family, help the families in this parish to discuss vocations to the religious life in a positive, encouraging manner...
O, Mary, intercede for us!

Queen of the Rosary, remind us to pray for our religious, and those studying for the religious life, that they will remain zealous and dedicated to their call...
O, Mary, intercede for us!

Our Lady of Lourdes, we ask for happiness among priests, seminarians and all those engaged in a special Christian vocation to service...
O, Mary, intercede for us!

O Mother, help us to be a sign of that which we believe; and thereby, be an inspiration to a young man and woman to become a priest or sister or brother...
O, Mary, intercede for us!

Our Lady of Fatima, bring an increase in missionary vocations so that the Christian message will be heard by all nations...
O, Mary, intercede for us!

Mother of Courage, be with the young man or woman, priest or sister who needs our help in a special way today...
O, Mary, intercede for us!

Mary Queen of Peace, may we provide an incentive for those already in religious life to grow in their vocation of service to the Church...
O, Mary, intercede for us!

Mother of God, may we recognize our own vocation and the importance of religious vocations to ours...
O, Mary, intercede for us!

Our Lady of Mercy, let us as parishioners become aware of the needs of our own priests and respond to them out of love...
O, Mary, intercede for us!

Mother of our Savior, may more young men and women go from this parish as priests, brothers and sisters to bring the truths of our Catholic faith to all others, so that they may know and love your Son...
O, Mary, intercede for us!

Oh Jesus, our Good Shepherd, bless all our parishes with numerous priests, deacons, men and women in religious life, consecrated laity and missionaries, according to the needs of the entire world, which You love and wish to save.
We especially entrust our community to You; grant us the spirit of the first Christians, so that we may be a cenacle of prayer, in loving acceptance of the Holy Spirit and His gifts.
Assist our pastors and all who live a consecrated life. Guide the steps of those who have responded generously to Your call and are preparing to receive holy orders or to profess the evangelical counsels.
Look with love on so many well-disposed young people and call them to follow You.
Help them to understand that in You alone can they attain to complete fulfillment.
To this end we call on the powerful intercession of Mary, Mother and Model of all vocations. We beseech You to sustain our faith with the certainty that the Father will grant what You have commanded us to ask. Amen

Virgen de Guadalupe, Evangelizadora de las Americas, Madre de Dios, Madre de la Iglesia y Madre Nuetra! Tu eres el orgullo de nuestra gente. Jesus tu Hijo, cambio el agua en vino, porque tu se lo pediste. Te imploramos, Madre Misericordiosa, que obtengas para nosotros todas las gracias que necesitamos de tu Hijo. Intercede ante El para que bendiga a las Americas con muchas vocaciones al sacerdocio, a la vida religiosa, al matrimonio cristiano y a la vida laical, Madre de Dios, ruega por nostros ahora y siempre. Amen

VATICAN CITY, APRIL 6, 2004 (Zenit.org) - The drop in the number of priests in the West can overshadow the “boom” in vocations the Church is experiencing elsewhere in the world, says a Vatican official.

In fact, during John Paul II’s pontificate the number of major seminarians has virtually doubled, the secretary of the Congregation for Clergy, Archbishop Csaba Ternyak, said when presenting to the press the Pope’s Holy Thursday Letter to Priests.

In 1978, when John Paul II was elected, there were 63,882 major seminarians in the world. In 2001 there were 112,982.

“Never in the history of the Church have we had so many seminarians studying philosophy and theology,” Archbishop Ternyak said.

“What is beautiful is that these vocations are more stable than they were 30 years ago,” he said. “The percentage of seminarians who gave up this path was 9.09% at the beginning of the pontificate; while at present this percentage has decreased to 6.93%.”

The Vatican official noted that “14% of present parishes -- 216,736 at the end of 2001 -- were created in the last 30 years. And the proportion of priests expressly dedicated to parish ministry has grown notably; 212,095 parishes are managed directly by a priest, while in 1978 there were only 200,295.”

In his Letter to Priests, the Pope refers to a shortage of priests in some parts of the world, because “the number of priests is dwindling without sufficient replacements from the younger generation.” But he adds: “In other places, thank God, we see a promising springtime of vocations.”

In his presentation, Archbishop Ternyak referred to the drop in priestly ranks in the West. “It is due to the progressive aging of the local population, to the worrying phenomenon of the decrease in births and, lastly, to the cultural phenomenon of the increase of secularism,” he said.

“On the other hand, one can see growth in the number of the clergy, particularly in the younger continents, where procreation is still significant and where culture is less affected by the religious crisis,” the archbishop said.

According to data provided by Archbishop Ternyak, the crisis that broke out in the late 1960s affects, above all, Europe, the United States and Canada.

Europe in 1961 had 250,859 priests; in 2001 it had 206,761. North America, which had 71,725 priests in 1961, had 57,988 in 2001.

In contrast, Latin America in 1961 had 43,202 priests; four decades later it had 63,159.

In Africa the number of priests over the same period went from 16,541 to 27,988; and in Asia, the ranks rose from 25,535 to 44,446. The archbishop did not give data for Oceania.

In 1961, there were 404,082 priests worldwide, while in 2001 there were 405,067, he said.

Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos, prefect of the congregation, said that although the number of priests in the last 43 years has remained almost unaltered, the world population has almost doubled.

To put those numbers in context, he said, one must take into account the enormous improvement in the quality of life, allowing elderly priests to have greater pastoral capacity.

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