14 Feb 2012
In the simplest terms ‘vocation’ means a ‘call’. It’s about how God is calling you to live your life. We all have a vocation, in that we are all called by God to love Him and others as much as we love ourselves. Some are called to marriage, others to single life and some have a vocation to priestly and religious life.
We are told in Jn 10:10 that Jesus came that we “may have life and have it to the full”. God gives each one of us life, and in fulfilling his will we achieve the joy and happiness that only he can offer. Discovering what your vocation is one of your greatest undertakings. It is nothing less than discovering how God wants you to live and be in our world.
The words of Blessed John Henry Newman offer some insight into the role and importance of vocation in our lives:
God knows me and calls me by my name.…
God has created me to do Him some definite service;
He has committed some work to me
which He has not committed to another.
I have my mission—I never may know it in this life,
but I shall be told it in the next.
Somehow I am necessary for His purposes…
I have a part in this great work;
I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection
between persons.
He has not created me for naught. I shall do good,
I shall do His work;
I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth
in my own place, while not intending it,
if I do but keep His commandments
and serve Him in my calling.
Therefore I will trust Him.
Whatever, wherever I am,
I can never be thrown away.
If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him;
In perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him;
If I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him.
My sickness, or perplexity, or sorrow may be
necessary causes of some great end,
which is quite beyond us.
He does nothing in vain; He may prolong my life,
He may shorten it;
He knows what He is about.
He may take away my friends,
He may throw me among strangers,
He may make me feel desolate,
make my spirits sink, hide the future from me—
still He knows what He is about.…
Let me be Thy blind instrument. I ask not to see—
I ask not to know—I ask simply to be used.
from Meditations and Devotions,
“Meditations on Christian Doctrine,”
“Hope in God—Creator”, March 7, 1848