It’s no secret! All the churches are in desperate need of vocations! While we generally focus on vocations to the ministry, as priests, ministers, consecrated life (nuns and brothers and lay ministers), we are also desperately in need of baptisms, marriages, parents, educators, family and leaders in all the professions. Just ask how many ordinations will take place in the near future compared to clergy retirements. How many more funerals are there compared to marriages and baptisms?
While it is above my pay grade to discern who may be called to any particular vocation, I think there are some issues and considerations that any Christian may want to address.
What is my purpose in life? Service or selfishness. How can I become the best version of myself as God’s child, not just run my own show?
What is God’s purpose for my life? Once I give myself to God, I belong to him, “not my will, but thine be done.”
All are called to sharing the faith. What is the best way for me to do that? Is God calling me to a vocation in the Church, in marriage, a lay person, or witness in the workplace in a particular job or profession?
Have you spoken with a minister, priest, or other persons about discerning a vocation? We only have one life. While we may be successful, one person put it this way, “I climbed the ladder of success, only to find it was leaning against the wrong wall!”
I thought that a person decided to be a minister or priest and then went to seminary, much like any other profession. Recently l learned that seminary was not just a place to prepare for vocation, but that it was a place where you discern with guidance of the Holy Spirit and others, whether you have a priestly vocation. Not everyone who wants to be a priest is “called by God” to that vocation. You don’t have to be a hundred percent sure of a vocation to go to seminary!
All are called by God to vocation! There is much work to be done, some that only you can do! Since there is a great need for vocations, as God’s people, his children, you owe it to him and others to seek out the vocation God has for you.
Choosing a vocation is not always easy. We feel pressure from our current culture to forget about religion, morals, and God. We feel pressure from ourselves to just “do our own thing”, and pressure from Satan to turn away from God’s invitation. Listening to God’s voice for our lives is not easy among the noise from other places. Yet with God’s help and others, we can learn what vocation God has for us. Seek it out.
“May the Lord bless and keep you. May he let his face shine upon you, be gracious to you, and give you his peace.”
