Dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus,
After a blessed Advent and Christmas season we entered the Ordinary time of the Liturgical Year B. The main focus of our readings of this weekend is Gods call in general and in particular.
What is the difference between a vocation and a career?
A career is a way of making a living to sustain oneself and family which is generally grouped into a series of jobs. A vocation is different. A vocation isn't so much a job but who the person is and more importantly it comes from God. Vocation comes from the Latin ‘vocare’ which means "to call." We are all called to holiness and how this is played out in our lives is different. There are four different callings to our vocation: marriage, religious life, priesthood, and the single life. All of these callings are ordered to get us closer to God.
In a marriage the union is meant for each spouse to grow with each other and get each other to heaven. Religious life is a call to join a community to build up the Kingdom of God. They are sisters, brothers, monks, or nuns but they all strive in a unique way to serve God through service and prayer. Men in religious life can also be ordained to the priesthood. The priesthood is a calling to serve God's people in a religious community or a diocese (archdiocese). A priest has a special role in leading the people in prayer and administering the sacraments. The single life is another way in which a person can live out their vocation. It is an opportunity for a man or women to use their time to serve God with the freedom they have that is characterized by the single life.
It is important to pray for all vocations, but in a special way pray for an increase of vocations for priesthood, Diaconate and religious life. There is a great need as "the harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest" (Mt 9:37-38).
For the Christian a vocation is not just something that God calls us to do, it is also the person God calls us to be. Christ has always called some
people to follow him in concrete ways, by giving them a more specific vocation.
Vocation as a call to be the unique person you are made to be. There is yet another level to ‘vocation’. Each saint is unique, and you are called to be holy not just in a general way, but in the particular way that God has made you to be. God created you as a unique individual and calls you by a name that no-one else has been given. You reflect Christ’s love and show something of his face in a way that no-one else can. This is your ‘personal’ vocation – the call to be the person you are meant to be.
God Bless you all,
Fr. John Samuel
