Vocation

When we talk about vocation as a call from God, we usually think about priesthood or religious life. There is a kind of “natural” association between vocation, priesthood and religious life. If this association was true, how come God calls some people to the priesthood or to religious life without calling others to build a family where all priests and nuns come from? It means that vocation cannot exclusively be understood as God’s call to the priesthood or religious life.

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As God is calling us, we have the privilege of responding. There are many ways for us to respond.

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God created us in his image and likeness. He wants us to share in his divine nature or his holiness: "Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy" (Lv 19:2), says the Lord. Holiness is, therefore, our common and primary call from God. All we do in our life should be at the service of this call to holiness. As God is calling us, we have the privilege of responding. There are many ways for us to respond. And God helps us by calling us again to different concrete styles of life, including marriage, religious life, ordained ministry, and other personal callings to serve Him in the Church or in the world. Normally, the reason someone seeks to follow the call to marriage, priesthood, religious life, etc. is to fulfill our primary vocation, the call to holiness.

As a visible sign of Christ’s presence, the Church has the noble task to carry on Jesus’s mission of redemption by guiding God’s people towards holiness. The Church is, therefore, called to promote a vocation culture. It means, “to foster an atmosphere in which (...) Catholics are open to a personal invitation to discern accurately and embrace freely the form of permanent commitment in the Church to which they are being called.” (Third Continental Congress on Vocations in North America 2002, p. 62). Through prayers and other activities, the Church mentors and helps people to discern and re-spond to God’s call.

Our Collaborative Vocations Team is bringing its contribution to the Church’s mission of promoting a vocation culture. We are launching a program (click this link for more information) to help encourage Church vocations within the Parish of Saint Mary and the Parish of Saint Martha. We need you to be involved by taking home our Vocation Cross and Prayer Box and pray for an increase in Church vocations within our collaborative.

Considering the critical need for more priests in our Archdiocese of Boston, Father Joe and I cannot miss this opportunity to beseech you, while you will be praying for vocation in general, to pray in a special way for more vocations to the priesthood in our Archdiocese. May our Mother Mary, “the human being who has responded better than any other to God's call” (John Paul II, Pastores dabo vobis, n. 82), intercede for more vocations in the Archdiocese of Boston.