Dear Brothers,

Re: A Day of Prayer for Vocations.

It has been our concern for some time that less and less young men and women are interested in joining religious congregations to become a consecrated person for the sake of the Kingdom. The harvest is rich but indeed the laborers are getting fewer. The dwindling of candidates is also happening in our Congregation, whereas we are all aware that the sustainability of the institution is mostly depending on the availability of candidates who want to join in.

Due to this reason the General Chapter 2012 has requested the General Council and Provincial Councils to continue and enhance the promotion of vocations to our Congrega- tion, among others by the appreciation of our vocation, through the exemplary way of living, and faithful prayer for vocations (cf. Proposal 16). We believe in what Jesus said: “Ask the Lord of the harvest to send laborers to do his harvesting” (Lk. 10:2).

Being aware of the importance of prayer in the promotion of vocations, the Congrega- tional Conference (ConCon) 2014 in Malawi suggested that we have a day of prayer for vocations as a congregational movement. It was then decided that: every 21st day of the month the whole Congregation is to pray for vocations.

By means of this letter I hereby invite all FIC communities and individual brothers wherever you are to pray for vocations to our Congregation on every 21st day of the month. This congregational movement is by no means restricting the frequency of praying for vocations. On the contrary: each community and individual brother is expected to con- tinue praying for vocations as frequent as possible in addition to the above mentioned date of congregational movement. We do believe that God is going to send more laborers to our Congregation in due time when we keep knocking His door. The General Council is compiling prayers for vocations which can be used later by provinces for this purpose.

Br. Martinus Handoko General Superior FIC

Phone: +31 (0)43 - 350 83 73 Fax: +31 (0)43 - 363 32 49 E-mail: [email protected] Internet: http://www.brothers-fic.org