Vocation: A Call to Holiness and Service

Vocation: Our Search for God

"You have made us for yourself, O Lord,
and our heart is restless until we rest in You."

These timeless words from Saint Augustine’s Confessions, tell us that ultimately the human search for meaning and purpose in life is a search for God.

To be human is to be faced with moments of decision. In the midst of life’s challenges and contradictions we search for life’s true meaning and for personal fulfillment and happiness. What will I do with my life? What is the purpose of my existence? To whom and to what ideals will I commit my life? What is God’s will for my future? How can I best use my gifts and talents at the service of others, of society, and the world?

To search for answers to these basic human questions is to be brought face to face with the challenge of our life’s vocation. Discerning our vocation, at times exciting, at times a struggle, is a deep and fascinating journey in which the future lies before us as a promising plan to be fulfilled, an ideal to be realized. Our life decisions reveal the personal challenge to give full and lasting meaning and purpose to life: to live for God and for others. In the process we discover the original purpose of our creation by God: to know and love God in and through our love and service of others.

"Jesus Christ is the answer to the question that is every human person." In discerning life’s purpose and meaning we encounter the person of Jesus Christ as the one in whom we discover our vocation. His person, his message, his example and his call become God’s resounding answer to the human search for direction, for authentic meaning and action in life. Just as he did some two thousand years ago when he walked the earth, Jesus answers our search with his Gospel challenge – "Come, follow me" (Mark 10: 21)

You are not alone in choosing your life’s path, in deciding your future. Whether you respond to the call to the priesthood, the active or contemplative religious life, single or married life, Jesus Christ who invites also walks with us on the journey to greater realization and fulfillment of our vocation.

Vocation: God's Call and Gift of Grace
Your vocation opens you to the personal horizon of God’s plan of salvation. God who loves us, who is Love itself, is also the One who "calls" each one by name. Created by God each of us is called in unique and personal ways to respond to the call of Christ and the Church.

God’s call is, first and foremost, an invitation to accept divine love. Accepting God’s love in the person and mission of Jesus Christ we recognize that every vocation is to live in the mystery of that divine love: for God and for others. In accepting God’s love as the meaning and purpose of human existence you become a living reflection and witness of Jesus Christ in the world, in society, in the Church.

Every vocation is also a call to personal holiness extended to every baptized Christian. Through a vocation to the priesthood, religious life, marriage or the single life, each and every response becomes our personal path to holiness of life understood as our daily imitation of Christ in self-giving love of others. God calls each one of us by name and your response becomes a gift of grace that unfolds each moment, each day of your life.

Vocation:
Saying "YES" to Holiness and Service
How does one discern one’s vocation as a response to God’s invitation? In prayer and reflection, through spiritual direction, and attentive and patient listening to God’s word one arrives at that radical moment of life decision. To say "yes" to God’s call is to become an extraordinary work of God’s grace in the world.

As a priest, an active or contemplative religious, married or single person each of us fulfills our vocation when we pursue holiness of life in the very ordinary and daily circumstances of our daily existence. And so we discover that the ways of holiness are many according to the concrete "yes" we say in answer to God’s call.