HOLY HOUR FOR VOCATIONS

Reflection I:

With baptism we become children of God in his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Rising from the waters of the baptismal font, every Christian hears again the voice that was once heard on the banks of the Jordan River: “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

We come to a full sense of the dignity of the lay faithful if we consider the prime and fundamental vocation that the Father assigns to each of them in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit: the vocation to holiness, that is, the perfection of charity. Holiness is the greatest testimony of the dignity conferred on a disciple of Christ. … The call to holiness is rooted in baptism and proposed anew in the other sacraments, principally in the Eucharist. Since Christians are re-clothed in Christ Jesus and refreshed by his Spirit, they are “holy.” They therefore have the ability to manifest this holiness and the responsibility to bear witness to it in all they do.

The vocation to holiness must be recognized and lived by the lay faithful, first of all as an undeniable and demanding obligation and as a shining example of the infinite love of the Father that has regenerated them in his own life of holiness. Such a vocation, then, ought to be called an essential and inseparable element of the new life of baptism… At the same time the vocation to holiness is intimately connected to mission and to the responsibility entrusted to the lay faithful in the Church and in the world.

Reflection II

· A vocation is a unique and particular work of love in which each of us has been called by God.

· A vocation is the unique way we have been given to participate in God’s work of redeeming the world.

· Every baptized person is given a vocation. And, most people have more than one vocation.

· A vocation is received, not chosen.

· A vocation is revealed only as it unfolds, not according to a plan or schedule of our own making.

· A vocation is bigger than we are. We serve a vocation; the vocation does not serve us.

Not everyone will be able to give a name to his or her vocation, but this does not mean that they will not be able to live their vocation. Even if we cannot name our vocation in our lifetime, if we are faithful, God will ensure that we are enabled to carry out our own unique work of love.

(Catherine of Siena Institute, Called & Gifted II, “Discerning Personal Vocation”)

HOLY HOUR FOR VOCATIONS

Reflection III

The Latin roots of the word vocation (vocare, “to call” and vox, “voice”) center around the experience of hearing a call or voice. “The original meaning of ‘to have a vocation,’” wrote Carl Jung, “is to be addressed by a voice.” But who or what is calling?

From a spiritual perspective, of course, God is the Caller. The voice of vocation is the Voice of God. A divine source of wisdom, mysteriously both beyond and within ourselves, guides us in the path of our true calling and summons us to our destiny.