This Sunday we celebrate the World Day of Prayer for Vocations to the Priesthood and Religious Life. The Vocations Recruitment Team for the Diocesan Priesthood has requested all parishes to set aside a Holy Hour today to pray for vocations. I would like to share with you some reflections from a pilgrimage I made to Mexico last year with sixteen other pilgrims, led by our tour director, Tulio Jiminez.

Because of my involvement in the Vocations Team I had asked the pilgrims to adopt a special intention for the pilgrimage – to pray for an increase in the priestly vocations in the Archdiocese of Port of Spain.

The Mexican tour company gave each of us on the bus, small statues of Jesus as we set out on our first trip to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe. These reminded me of the logo of our Archdiocesan Vocations Recruitment Team.

The statuette I received depicted Jesus wearing a blue robe his hands outstretched – similar to the logo in which he is beckoning us “Come, follow me.” It seemed to confirm our prayer intention

We celebrated our first Mass in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in one of the side chapels (or capillas ) on the upper level of the Basilica.

It was the Feast of St Bartholomew, Apostle. Celebrating Mass in the Basilica Chapel was a bit difficult because Mass was also being celebrated in the main hall and it was very audible to us. However, while Mass is always an “awesome” experience, this Mass was the start of many awesome experiences we would have in several beautiful churches.

After Mass I went to the lower level to meet Tulio who took me to the area where pilgrims may journey on conveyor belts to view the Tilma with the miraculous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe (OLG). After I had made my first pass in front of the Tilma we were stopped by two ladies who had recognised me as a priest as I was wearing my clerical collar.

One was a mother whose daughter had just entered a convent as an aspirant. It seems the daughter was sad to leave home and the mother was not sure whether she would be able to persevere. The mother wanted me to pray for her daughter, which I assured her I would do. The other lady – an aunt – had a brother who was a priest who had had surgery recently and they wanted prayers for him as well.

Tulio thought that this was more confirmation of our prayer intention for vocations because, as he said, the first Mexicans to approach me to ask for prayers concerned a vocation situation.

I later went to the Blessed Sacrament Chapel. I remained there for a while before the huge tabernacle. Interestingly, on the side there was a banner-like sign from the Seminary with a prayer pleading with Jesus to send priests and religious after his own heart! There were only a few people in the chapel when I visited, but it struck me that in this chapel men did not seem to be out-numbered.

On the fifth day we celebrated Mass in the city of Morelia in the Church dedicated to San Diego but also known as “ La Gualupita ” – referring to OLG but the name varied in order to distinguish it from the main Basilica in Mexico City. This church was twinned by Pope Pius with St John Laternan, in Rome.

Fr Derek Anton (second from left), Tulio Jimenez (tour director) and two Franciscan Friars outside the Church of Our Lady of Zapopan, Guadalajara, Mexico

Of all the beautiful churches in which we celebrated Mass this one held a special place in my heart. We met the parish priest, Padre José Luis, in the sacristy before Mass. I had already put on a chasuble but he asked if I wanted to wear another with the image of OLG, so I willingly changed chasubles in honour of Our Lady.

After Mass I visited his presbytery for some refreshment. We chatted for a while. He was 22 years a priest. On the wall of the dining area I noticed a clock with the name of the Seminary. I asked him about it and learned that he teaches philosophy at the Seminary in Morelia where there are 200 plus seminarians.

We spoke of vocations to the priesthood and he explained that when he was first a priest he was involved in the work of vocations recruitment myself.

I told him of my late call and delayed response because of my struggle with it . He reminded me of the story of St Augustine and his struggle . We were celebrating the memorial of his mother, St Monica.

On Sunday, in Guadalajara City , we visited the church dedicated to Mary, Queen of Zapopan. We waited for Mass to end so that we could visit the church. We looked at the time schedule outside. There were 14 Masses on Sunday and about 11 on Saturday – evidence of the faith of the people. The Mass in progress was fairly well-attended.

While waiting we met two Franciscan Friars who belonged to the monastery attached to the church. We visited the church briefly. There was a relic of the Holy Cross inside but it was not very visible.

The Friars told us that that diocese had the largest number of diocesan vocations to the priesthood in all of Mexico . When I asked one of the Friars if Our Lady of Zopopan had anything to do with this he smiled and said: “You had better pray to Our Lady.” Before I left the church, I did just that.

We were given a tour of the non-cloistered part of the monastery by one of the Friars. The household is 70 plus comprising priests, brothers and including 42 Franciscan seminarians studying philosophy etc. over a three-year period.

As we were about to leave at the end of the tour, we saw two young men entering the community for the first time – apparent testimony to the fruitfulness of vocations there. We left a request for a Mass intention to be offered for vocations to the priesthood in Trinidad and Tobago .

On Tuesday we visited the Shrine of El Cristo Rey (Christ the King) on top of a mountain some 2600 metres above sea level. The scene was breathtaking. There is a large statue of Jesus, which is said to be the first of about five large statues of Jesus in the world, the most famous probably being at Corcovado in Brazil.

Jesus was standing there with arms outstretched. One arm seemed to remind me of his invitation to “come, follow me”, but one in particular seemed to suggest a gesture of blessing, causing me to reflect that we are blessed as we follow him.

As I first approached the statue of Jesus there was a lot of misty cloud hiding Jesus' face (like the obstacles our sins can be) but as I walked closer to him and his face became more visible, I noticed how he towered over me.

When you get closer to Jesus you allow him to have more authority over your life – you let him be King of your life. In our pilgrimage in which we asked Our Lady ‘s intercession, she brought us to her son, Christ the King!

We celebrated Mass in the Shrine with some Mexicans attending with us. Afterwards they asked me to bless some items they had purchased. Once again the devotion of the people was striking.

Thursday, September 1 was our last day in Mexico City . We started off on our bus ride from the hotel to visit the Basilica of OLG for the last time. Our friendly and super-efficient tour guide, Pepe, brought along a music CD from his home and started playing it – Pescador de los hombres (Fisher of men).

This is a song affiliated with vocations and which I believe was the same one sung at my own ordination. I couldn't believe that this was what he chose to play.

We celebrated Mass in one of the Chapels in the Basilica of OLG. The Gospel that day was Luke 5:1-11 in which Jesus said to Simon, “‘Put out into deep water and pay out your nets for a catch' .. they netted such a huge number of fish..they signaled to their companions…to come and help them ..” Later Jesus says to Simon “ Do not be afraid; from now on it is men that you will catch'..they left everything and followed him .”

Mass was also being celebrated at the main altar of the Basilica. At the end of our Mass, I sat and observed the conclusion of the other Mass in Spanish.

After the Prayer after Communion the priest prayed another prayer. I did not understand all of it, but at the end I realised that, quite fittingly in view of the Gospel of the day, he was praying the vocation prayer. I recognised the plea to the Lord to send “ priests and religious according to your own heart .”

I looked over at Tulio and caught his eye – I think we both recognised the significance. Later that day, both he and I (unknown to each other) wrote out the vocation prayer from the poster in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel. What a fitting end to our pilgrimage with its main intention for an increase in priestly vocations in our archdiocese.

Tulio gave us a story about meeting a bishop in the basilica the previous year. The bishop had come the year before to pray for vocations and had returned that year to give thanks for vocations his diocese had received!

The Vocations Recruitment Team would like to encourage all the faithful to pray for an increase in priestly vocations. If you are interested in starting a Vocations Committee in your parish, please ask your parish priest for the team to come to talk with you about this.

While there is much work to be done, we must first begin with prayer. I think that our prayers were being heard on this pilgrimage and I pray that one day soon we may return to Our Lady of Guadalupe to give thanks for the vocations to the priesthood that Our Lord will bless us with in this Archdiocese.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us.