Vocation Awareness
Here are 5 steps to help prepare and guide teenagers and young adults to their vocation, the path God has prepared for them to follow, as well as a guide that will help all of us in our vocation.
(1) We must first encounter Christ - Until a person encounters Christ they will never truly know their calling in life and thus have the opportunity to be fulfilled. I will be as blunt as to say that they will truly miss out entirely on the plan Christ has prepared for them. Until we know Christ and begin to walk with him we can not imagine, much less live, the life he has chosen for us. We are the blind and lost sheep needing to know our Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ, and to be protected and guided in the sheep fold, called the Church, which he established. Prayer (and retreats which are enriched in prayer) is one of the primary means to encounter Christ. In the family setting this encounter can come through praying before meals, serving one another (prayer being lived out), and certainly by the entire family going to Church each Sunday, yet there is a more personal approach that is needed to help us encounter Christ at Mass and in the world; praying the Liturgy of the Hours, the daily praying of the rosary, the reading of spiritual books on the lives of the saints, attending a Holy Hour each week, the reading of Sacred Scripture, or praying through daily meditational books. Retreats are meant to be a springboard by which to delve deeper into our relationship with Christ and not a temporary encounter with Christ that fades away when we return home. Our encounter with Christ needs to be sustained through a commitment of personal prayer and communal support centered on the Sunday Mass.
(2) To live for Christ our courage must be great than our fear - As we feel God tugging us in a certain direction we typically resist. By the time we are teenagers we have already developed our comfort zone, but when we discover God’s call we will immediately recognize that God calls us out of our protective shell. As the saying goes if you want to walk on water you’ve got to get out of the boat! Saying yes to Jesus is exciting but also very frightening. Remember, in all honesty we can be just as frightened in our comfort zone as were all twelve disciples in the capsizing boat. It takes courage to overcome our fears! Among the apostles only Peter had the courage to go out to Jesus on the water and only Peter, because of his faith and courage, was able to walk on water (Mt 14:22-33). Figuratively speaking, we too must have greater faith in Jesus to follow him (no matter what) than the fears that prevent us from enjoying life to the fullest, to walk on water.
(3) Walk with Jesus one step at a time - Everything in this world seems to go fast. The faster something goes the bigger the rush... so we think. With God we must take the time to slow things down. In the rush of life we are suffocating our spirit! We need time and space to breathe. We need to set time into our daily schedule to communicate with God. We need months of prayer to discover our calling. I heard of one person describing our vocation to the like of driving a car at night. We only have enough light to see a few hundred feet ahead of us all night long but that is all it takes to get us to our final destination. God will show us the way a little bit at a time, not the whole road map at once. Be patient.
(4) Then we can begin to discover our purpose in life - With an establish prayer life and new found light through Christ a person can begin to ponder the meaning of life. There are so many areas in which God needs our help. If there are a million people in a city, then God has a plan in which all one million people are needed to help each other in building up the body of Christ. Through our common baptism we all belong and are a part of the body of Christ. One should then ask; how do I fit in the body of Christ? Where in the Church, or in what way in representing Christ, is God calling me to serve others? I need to let go of my ways and my will and live according to God’s will for me. What desire has God placed in my heart to help others individually or benefit the community as a whole?
(5) When we find peace its time to evangelize - When we are approaching our destination we will find ourselves joyful and being at peace. In another storm on the sea the disciples came to their senses and realized that Jesus was in the boat with them the whole time, so they called out to him, “Lord, save us! We are pershing!” Immediately Jesus responded, “Why are you so terrified, Oh you of little faith?”, then brought about a calming of the seas. (Mt 8:23-27) Again, when Jesus appeared in the resurrection to his disciples he said, “Peace be with you!” then he showed them his hands and side and then he said to them again, “Peace be with you, as the Father has sent me, so I send you.” and he breathed on them the Holy Spirit. (John 20:19-23) When we reach this level we are finally prepared, through our conversion and commitment, to say yes to the Lord where ever he calls us (be that through the single, married or religious life) and to bring others to Christ our Savior.
Yes, we need to plead to God for more young men and women to be called and to respond to their calling to the religious life. However, for this to happen, we also need to plead to God for strong commitments or even a renewal of commitments within marriages throughout our diocese. Furthermore, we need to plead to God that some young men and women be called to remain as they are in order to bear much fruit in the family, parish, and the diocesan life of the Church. We should equally respect and be humbly amazed at all three of these callings from God.
