A Religious Vocation

I found the following text in the Sisters of Life website:

A religious vocation is about being so filled with the love of Christ that only giving oneself totally and exclusively back to Him will suffice. It springs from a relationship of love with the Lord, who initiates a deep interior call that beckons, “Come, follow Me.” He asks a person to allow themselves to be set apart, consecrated, that he or she might become an echo of His life on earth. With the call comes a mission, a specific participation in Christ’s redemptive mission.

As is seen in Scripture, the Lord calls different types of people, with different backgrounds, personalities, life experiences, and idiosyncrasies. The Lord chooses people from among His people. He chooses people both as representatives of His people, and He also calls a particular individual made in His Image and Likeness very personally, as if to confirm that each life is infinitely valuable in His sight and to His Heart.

A vocation is not, contrary to what we sometimes hear, a career that one chooses; neither is it about our plans to do good, or to serve others as efficiently as possible. It is important to distinguish a desire to do good work or to grow closer to Jesus from a life-calling that demands our very essence given in love to the Lord.

So, how does one know if the Lord is calling? In varied ways, but, as Blessed Teresa of Calcutta responded when asked how someone knows if she is called: “She knows, she knows.” This is the language of the heart, and often it is difficult to put words to the language of the heart. The good news is, no one discerns a vocation in the Church alone -- with the help of a vocation director, you will be able to discern whether the Lord is calling you to one community or another, or to marriage or the single life. All disciples of Christ are called to love without limits, to give the gift of our very selves to others. Those called to religious life are called to live this “more” in a radical way, a way that would be impossible without the grace given by Him to carry it out.

Now what? The first way to discover and nurture a God-given vocation is by spending time with the One loved. Frequent (if possible daily) participation at Holy Mass, Holy Hours before the Blessed Sacrament and the Rosary are essential ways of growing in one’s relationship with the Lord. In the silence of our hearts, He speaks to us, He pours His love into our lives, He invites us to love Him in return. Remember the context in which our relationship with God exists: He loves us much more than we can even imagine. He wills only the good for us. It is with open trust that we must come to Jesus, not presenting our plans to Him, but allowing our hearts to receive what He proposes to us. He will never make us feel as though the idea of giving ourselves to Him is being forced on us - it is a free and total response to a great love.

Posted by Carlos J. Medina