On Sunday, February 7th, the 32nd National Day for Life in Italy, Benedict XVI prayed the Angelus with the many faithful and pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square.

Referring this Sunday’s liturgy, the Pope mentioned three examples of God’s call: the call of the prophet Isaiah; the Gospel story of the miraculous catch of which Peter is the protagonist; and a passage from the First Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians. In these three experiences, the Pope said, we see how the encounter with God leads man to recognize his poverty, inadequacy and limits. It is through this weakness, though, that God transforms the life of man and calls him to follow him.

And he added: “In this Year for Priests, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into his fields, so that many might hear the Lord’s call to follow him, and after necessary discernment, respond with generosity, not trusting each in his own strength, but each opening himself to the action of God’s grace.”