“Here I am, Lord”: Learning the Importance of Your Vocation

The Scriptural Rosary vol. 4: Luminous Mystery

“Here I am, Lord”: Learning the Importance of Your Vocation

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction Page 3

Universal/Primary Vocation Page 4

Secondary Vocation Page 5

Personal Vocation Page 8

Prayers for Vocations Page 9

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“HereTIhe
am,Scriptural
Lord”: Learning
Rosary thevol
Importance of Your
. 4: Luminous Vocation
Mystery

Introduction
And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go
for us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.” (Isaiah 6:8)

Our Heavenly Father created us to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this
life so we can be happy with Him in the next (CCC 1). All human beings have this
universal vocation — to attain eternal life with God. Each of us lives this call to holiness
in a particular state of life, such as marriage, the single life or religious life. This is our
secondary vocation. Finally, each person has a personal vocation, the unique path to
God which His providence determines. This vocation is the grace God gives us to live
out the tasks He entrusts to us personally.

For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for welfare and not for
evil, to give you a future and a hope. - Jeremiah 29:11

Our Lord is a good Father. He invites us into life with Him and longs for us to answer
His call. At times we may not understand the call, but through prayer and discernment,
we must allow ourselves to be led by the Holy Spirit.

Whatever vocation God calls us to, we are all called to do something for Him. We can
also all be assured that with the specific call, God offers the grace to live that vocation
as a path to holiness, doing the specific mission for which He calls us.

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go
and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide; so that whatever you ask the
Father in my name, he may give it to you. John 15:16

With this resource, we hope to invite you to see the beauty in answering God’s call
when He asks something of you.

“The Christian Vocation is simple: you are first

a child of God, and the state of life where God
has placed you is the source of your holiness.”
– Mother Angelica

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“Here I am, Lord”: Learning the Importance of Your Vocation

Universal/Primary Vocation
The first section of the Catechism of the Catholic Church gives us insight into why we
were created and our primary vocation.

[God] calls man to seek Him, to know Him, to love Him with all his strength.
He calls together all men, scattered and divided by sin, into the unity of his
family, the Church ... In His Son and through him, [the Father] invites men
to become, in the Holy Spirit, his adopted children and thus heirs of His
blessed life. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1, emphasis added)

We were created to know God, love Him, and serve Him. In each decision we make, we
are to make sure to have our purpose at the forefront. Though he calls us all in different
ways and to serve Him through different tasks, we all have a principal call: the call to
holiness.

In Lumen Gentium, Pope Saint Paul IV touches on this universal call.

With this Exhortation I would like to insist primarily on the call to holiness that the Lord
addresses to each of us, the call that he also addresses, personally, to you: “Be holy,
for I am holy” (Leviticus 11:44; cf. 1 Peter 1:16). The Second Vatican Council stated this
clearly: ‘Strengthened by so many and such great means of salvation, all the faithful,
whatever their condition or state, are called by the Lord - each in his or her own way
- to that perfect holiness by which the Father himself is perfect’ (Lumen Gentium, 11).

Throughout Church history, we’ve seen examples of holy men and women from all
walks of life living admirable lives of virtue and faith.

Scholars such as Saint Thomas Aquinas are held in the same high esteem as Saint
Thérèse of Lisieux, God’s “Little Flower” who became known for the seemingly “small”
ways in which she loved the Lord immensely.

Regardless of cultural background, social status, age, or state of life, every member of
the body of Christ shares this invitation to holiness, and each member has the ability
and responsibility to answer the call. Heaven is our destination. The life of a Christian
is to be oriented toward the Lord and draw closer and closer to Him until reunited with
Him in heaven.

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“HereTIhe
am, Lord”: Learning
Scriptural Rosary thevol
Importance of Your
. 4: Luminous Vocation
Mystery

Secondary Vocation
If our destination is Heaven, our state in life is the path we will take to attain it. This
is usually the sense understood when someone speaks of his or her “vocation.” Not
forgetting our primary or universal vocation, we are each called by God to know Him,
love Him, and serve Him through a specific state of life, whether the priesthood, religious
life, married life, or the single life, consecrated or unconsecrated.

Thus, even though the Church distinguishes the objective value of the various states
of life, with the highest being embracing the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity,
and obedience as the perfect way to follow Christ (Mt. 5:48, 19:21), one’s subjective or
personal call to holiness in a state of life must be discerned, as it is the means by which
God wills the individual’s sanctification.

The Priesthood and Religious Life

During the 2011 World Youth Day in Madrid, Spain, Pope Benedict XVI met with young
women religious and said to them, “Consecrated life means going to the very root of
the love of Jesus Christ with an undivided heart and putting nothing ahead of this love.”

This echoes the teaching of Pope St. John Paul II in his Apostolic Exhortation “Vita
consecrata” (1996), in which he wrote,

32. . . .As a way of showing forth the Church’s holiness, it is to be recognized that the
consecrated life, which mirrors Christ’s own way of life, has an objective superiority.
Precisely for this reason, it is an especially rich manifestation of Gospel values and
a more complete expression of the Church’s purpose, which is the sanctification of
humanity. The consecrated life proclaims and in a certain way anticipates the future
age, when the fullness of the Kingdom of Heaven, already present in its first fruits and
in mystery, will be achieved and when the children of the resurrection will take neither
wife nor husband, but will be like the angels of God (cf. Mt. 22:30).

For this reason, no one is objectively wrong to choose the life of the evangelical
counsels. Even so, to be perfect (Mt. 5:48) ultimately consists in doing the will of
God. Recognizing this, the Church provides a time for final discernment of the Divine
Will in the period of formation. Not all may be called to this life who recognize its
objective goodness and who desire to serve God perfectly. Formation allows the
individual, and the Church, the time to test the authenticity of the call.

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“Here I am, Lord”: Learning the Importance of Your Vocation

Similarly, the priesthood, which exercises the office of Christ the Priest in service of
the salvations of souls, has an objective superiority to other states, most fully in the
episcopate. This is true whether it is lived in the celibate state, or in conjunction with
married life, as priests may do in the Eastern Churches.

Just as with religious life, the desire to seek God in the priestly vocation is objectively
good. And like religious life, there is a duty to discern the call, both on the part of the
individual and the Church. The period of spiritual and intellectual formation that leads
to ordination provides the time for this discernment.

Permanent Diaconate

The restoration of the Diaconate in the Latin Church as a permanent vocation by the
Second Vatican Council has created a new vocational possibility. For most of the last
thousand years, the diaconate has been transitional to the priesthood in the West.
It remains so for those with the priestly call, but may now be lived as a permanent
ministry of charity, assisting at the altar and in the pastoral ministry.

Like priests and deacons in the Eastern Churches, those with this call may be ordained
if they are already married, but must remain celibate if they are not. And like the
priesthood itself the permanent diaconate represents a call that must be discerned,
both by the individual and by the Church.

Married Life

In recent centuries there has been a growing appreciation of marriage as a special

vocation, rather than the general vocation of all unless called to religious life or Holy
Orders. Reflecting on the Book of Tobit, medieval and later authors noticed the care
with which the Archangel Raphael directed the path of Tobit and Sarah. Scripture
likewise shows throughout that God’s plans for each of us is precise. If even the hairs
on our head are numbered (Mt. 10:33), how much more care does He give to the life-
long union of Christian spouses, called, as they are, to be signs before the world of the
union of Christ and His Church.

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“HereTIhe
am, Lord”: Learning
Scriptural Rosary thevol
Importance of Your
. 4: Luminous Vocation
Mystery

Thus, just as men and women are called to give of themselves for others and attain
holiness in religious vocations, men and women are called to do the same in marriage,
for each other, and for their families. Pope Saint John Paul II said,

To maintain a joyful family requires much from both the parents and the children.
Each member of the family has to become, in a special way, the servant of the
others and share their burdens.

In the vocation of marriage, therefore, spouses learn to love each other and give of
themselves, as Christ loved and gave Himself for the Church (Ephesians 5:25). They
are called to be a living reflection of the Holy Trinity, whose communion is fruitful in
creating, redeeming and sanctifying their creation. Thus, the love of spouses should be
similarly fruitful in giving life, and extending their gift of self to those around them. As
Pope John Paul II noted in his Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris consortio,

28. . . .the fruitfulness of conjugal love is not restricted solely to the procreation of
children, even understood in its specifically human dimension: it is enlarged and
enriched by all those fruits of moral, spiritual and supernatural life which the father
and mother are called to hand on to their children, and through the children to the
Church and to the world.

Single Life: Consecrated and Unconsecrated

While the vocation to married life and religious life are more common, God also calls
some to completely dedicate their lives to Him by living a single life. This can take various
public forms of consecration recognized by the Church, such as Secular Institutes,
Societies of Apostolic Life, and Consecrated Virgins or Widows, or by means of private
promises to remain a virgin or celibate. One can also simply remain in the world living
as an unconsecrated single person. This is, in fact, the condition of most single men
and women.

However, whether lived as a consecrated single, publicly or privately, or simply as a

single person in the world, by our baptism we are called to live chaste and holy lives,
fulfilling God’s call to holiness. This primary vocation is not something we “settle for.”
Nor, should we focus on it “only until another vocation presents itself.” Rather, God
created us for Himself and our primary goal as Christians should be to live a life of
holiness for Him in whatever state or condition we find ourselves by His Providence.

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“Here I am, Lord”: Learning the Importance of Your Vocation

Personal Vocation
God calls us all to a specific task; a “personal vocation” is specific to each person.

The Lord calls each of us to something that is as unique and unrepeatable as we are.
Pope St. John Paul II said personal vocation is the “singular, unique and unrepeatable
grace by which each Christian in the community of the People of God builds up the
Body of Christ.”

The Lord may be calling one person to end world hunger, while He may call someone
else to serve their family at home. Christ calls us each to a specific task, and holiness
is found in bearing that responsibility well.

For example, Saint John Bosco was an Italian Priest and teacher in the 19th century.
He knew, loved, and served God by loving and serving the youth in his community.
We can compare him to St. Giannna Beretta Molla, a wife, mother, and doctor from
the 20th century who loved and served those around her but is more known for the
way she loved and served her family. In the eyes of the world, Saint Gianna’s work
may have seemed “less important.” We learn from the examples of great saints such
as Saint Teresa of Avila that “even when you are in the kitchen, our Lord moves
amidst the pots and pans” and from Saint Therese of Lisieux, that we don’t have
to do big things in order to love and serve God; we can love God greatly by doing
seemingly small things with great love.

These two saints were both greatly in love with the Lord, lived two different states
of life, but both attained heaven and lead an exemplary life of virtue, by serving God
within their states of life.

In the words of Mother Angelica, “We are all called to the place where God can use
us the most.”

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“HereTIhe
am, Lord”: Learning
Scriptural Rosary thevol
Importance of Your
. 4: Luminous Vocation
Mystery

Prayers for Vocations

Prayer #1

O Holy Spirit, Spirit of wisdom and divine love, impart Your knowledge, understanding,
and counsel to youth that they may know the vocation wherein they can best serve
God. Give them courage and strength to follow God’s holy will. Guide their uncertain
steps, strengthen their resolutions, shield their chastity, fashion their minds, conquer
their hearts, and lead them to the vineyards where they will labor in God’s holy
service.
Amen.

Prayer #2

God our Father,

Who wills that all men be saved
And come to the knowledge of Your Truth:
We beg you to send
Laborers into Your harvest,
And grant them grace to speak Your Word
With all boldness; so that Your Word
May spread and be glorified,
And all nations may know You,
The only God, and Him whom You have sent,
Jesus Christ your Son, Our Lord. Amen.
Our Lady, Queen of the Americas,
And Mary, Mother of the
Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word,
Pray for us.

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“Here I am, Lord”: Learning the Importance of Your Vocation

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