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WE ARE ALL CALLED
to holiness: to follow Jesus the Christ, ...to participate in Jesus' mission: to make present God's Reign on earth. Contents Our Universal Vocation to Holiness and Mission The Types of Particular Vocations 1. The Secular Vocations of Single and Married Life a. Dedicated Single Life b. Consecrated Marriage 2. The Vocation to Consecrated Life a. Distinction between Secular and Consecrated States of Life b. Religious Life c. Societies of Apostolic Life d. Secular Institutes e. Consecrated Virgins f. Hermits 3. The Vocation to Ordained Ministry a. Diocesan Priests; Priest Religious b. Permanent Deacons 4. The Living of it: Concluding Considerations a. Vocation and Career b. Discernment: Initial and Ongoing c. Prayer during Discernment OUR UNIVERSAL VOCATION to HOLINESS and MISSION Every person is created by God out of love and is called to live in right relationship with God by loving God, self, others, and all of creation. Through Baptism, all Christians are called to follow Jesus Christ. We are all called to holiness. Through Baptism, we become God's children, and are all called to share in the one priesthood of Jesus, the Christ, i.e., the Anointed One, who offered Himself in love and service to God. We are all called to a common priesthood. That means that all our activities, all our energies, all the sacrifices, joys and the commitments of our lives can be joined with His, as we work to make present the Reign of God. We are all called to be "Reign-Makers"! We are all called to mission. Archbishop Oscar Romero expressed this call to our common priesthood in a homily that he preached in the Cathedral of San Salvador, (and not long afterwards, he was martyred for his faith). He said:
Every life is a vocation! Every life is a call by God to holiness and mission! (Pope John Paul II) Emerging from our universal vocation are particular vocations to which we have all been or are being called, namely, the vocations of single, married, consecrated, and/or ordained life. Each one of us is called in a different way. We receive different gifts and have different responsibilities. Whatever form our particular vocations take, the love and the service we offer find their real value by being joined to the person and mission of Jesus the Christ. In the Church, as the "home of holiness" and whose soul is "the love of Christ poured out by the Holy Spirit", "all Christians help one another to discover and fulfill their own vocation by listening to the Word of God, by prayer, by assiduously participating in the sacraments and incessantly seeking the face of Christ in every sister and brother...
top 1. The secular vocations of single and married life make the Church present and fruitful in those places and circumstances where it is only through them that the Church can become the salt of the earth. (Vatican II Constitution on the Church #33) Single and married Catholics are called to primary and direct personal participation in the world by committed Christian living in the ordinary circumstances of life, that is, in family and parenting, economic enterprise, political involvement, religious leadership, social activism and other areas of secular life.
The secular vocations are the primary source of hope for the transformation of the world in Christ, as they make present, through the action of the Holy Spirit, the Reign of God here and now, and to come. top a) Some are called to be Reign-makers as dedicated single Catholics These dedicated single Catholics "gift" the Church and the world with their own individual God-given charisms by a Christ-like life of commitment to service.
They make visible what it means to re-present Christ - by who one is and how one lives life - wherever one is and in whatever one does.
In a very real sense, the vocation to Single Life is a call to be a "SIGNIFICANT OTHER" in secular and church community, by being: For some, the vocation to the single life may be a call to a lifelong and permanent state of life; for many others, it may be a temporary and transitional state of life. b) Some are called to be Reign-Makers in the Consecrated life of Matrimony. top Consecrated marriage, i.e., marriage consecrated by the sacrament of matrimony, is a gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church that signifies the union of Christ and the Church, and makes visible what it means to love faithfully and fruitfully.
The fidelity of marital love is also a prophetic symbol, as seen in Hosea, of the steadfastness, the faithfulness, of God's covenantal love for His people. The Second Vatican Council calls the family "the domestic church". The family, first a wife and a husband, then a wife and a husband and any children they may have or welcome into their home, is the smallest unit of the Church. The family that results from marriage is the context in which the Christian life of holiness and mission is primarily lived.
This love includes the warmth of personal caring and self-giving. It means love that has empathy with and compassion for the needs, feelings, and desires of another person, and that gives way, when occasion demands, for the building up of the Body of Christ. This love means loyalty and service, the Christian ministry of making present the Reign of God -- in the domestic, local and universal church as well as in society. top 2. Some are called to be Reign-Makers by living a Consecrated life. The Consecrated life is a gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church that makes visible the absoluteness of the God-Quest: an exclusive love relationship with Jesus. This gift is a reminder to all of the universal call to holiness and shows what it means to love God above all else. a) In terms of theology and spirituality, SECULAR and CONSECRATED states of life are distinguished by the way people or groups are related to the secular order, that is, to the "world". The Christian called to Secular Life has a direct personal primary or fundamental relationship to the secular order. Such a Christian is called to transform the world by living a committed Christian existence. The Christian called to Consecrated Life has a qualified relationship to the secular order. Such a Christian is relatively marginalized in relation to the world because the call to Consecrated Life is a call to the primacy and absoluteness of the religious quest. Living one's life dedicated to this quest is another valid way of contributing to the transformation of the world. The terms "secular" and "Religious or Consecrated" do not, in and of themselves, denote class distinction. Both states of life are necessary if the reign of God is to be made present and to come on this earth. Both states of life can lead to the fullness of holiness. Neither state of life is intrinsically superior or inferior. Neither has exclusive territorial rights to the marketplace or to Church ministries. Furthermore, "secular" and "lay" are not synonymous terms. "Lay" means "non-ordained" and includes both most seculars (those non-ordained, i.e., everyone but the clergy) and many religious (all non-clerical ones, i.e., Nuns, Sisters, and Brother Friars/Monks) and all other non-clerical persons in other forms of the Consecrated Life. In other words, non-ordained secular Christians and non-ordained Christians in the Consecrated states of life share the lay state when the Church is looked at from the standpoint of hierarchical organization. The Consecrated Life is at the very heart of the Church as a decisive element for Her mission, since it manifests the inner nature of the Christian calling and the striving of the whole Church as Bride towards union with Her one Spouse. (Vita Consecrata 3) Communal forms of the Consecrated Life include: Religious Life, Secular Institutes, and Societies of Apostolic Life. Individual forms of the Consecrated Life include: Consecrated Virgins, and Hermits. b) Religious life is the most common form of Consecrated Life. In this lifeform, women and men commit themselves totally and completely to Jesus forever by the vowed life, community, and mission. This exclusive love relationship with Jesus is the heart of Religious Life and is expressed in the vow of lifelong consecrated celibacy. The vows of poverty and obedience, professed and lived in imitation of Jesus, guide and facilitate community. Community is the union of faith in mind and heart of the members of a Religious Institute who share this common Christ-centered "God Quest" and its expression in the vowed life.
For Religious, mission and ministry are to be expressions of the lived faith community of their vowed life. Religious are called to create inclusive community wherever they are. Theirs is to be a prophetic mission of presence as well as of witness in Church and in society. Religious' vow-based community life also requires reaching out to and standing in solidarity with the abandoned and the poor as well as with the most vulnerable and marginalized in Church and society. And, because everything in the universe and on earth is interrelated, community also implies promoting ecological concern for the natural community in which we all live.
c) Societies of Apostolic Life are characterized by their dedication to the apostolic purpose proper to their particular Society. They strive for the perfection of charity. While Societies of Apostolic life are not required to make the religious vows, some Societies undertake to live the evangelical counsels, including poverty; in other Societies, their constitutions allow their members to personally acquire, possess and dispose of temporal goods. Some Societies live the "common life" form of the monastic lifestyle; others live community in a diversity of lifestyles. Some take an oath of fidelity to their Society; some pronounce the religious vows annually. Some Societies are exclusively clerical in membership. Among Societies of Apostolic Life that are well-known in the United States are the Daughters of Charity, the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America (Maryknoll Priests and Brothers), Sulpicians, and Vincentians. d) Secular Institutes, like Societies of Apostolic Life, adopt some aspects of the Religious lifeform, but not all of them. Their members seek to live the evangelical counsels of poverty, celibate chastity and obedience. They may take vows, but are more likely to make promises or some other form of commitment. Unlike Religious, these vows and sacred bonds are not public. Members of Secular Institutes usually do not live together nor share an apostolate, although some do. They seek to make sacred the secular world in the locale in which they live and work. The membership of most Secular Institutes consists of laypersons; some Secular Institutes do have members who are priests or single deacons. e) Consecrated Virgins commit themselves to follow Christ more closely and to serve the Church. These women, whether single or previously married, promise perpetual virginity to God. They are consecrated by the local bishop according to the ancient rite of the Consecration of a Virgin, a rite restored by the Church in 1970. After consecration, they continue to work in the secular world as they did before and, in a manner similar to members of Secular Institutes, they participate in mission by sanctifying the world through direct participation in it. They are expected to support themselves by work, pension or other independent means. f) Hermits, either by vow or other sacred bond before the diocesan bishop, publicly profess the evangelical counsels. Unlike Consecrated Virgins, these men and women separate themselves from the world and devote themselves to the silence of solitude, prayer, and penance in a manner similar to cloistered contemplative Religious. top 3. Some are called to be Reign-Makers in the Ordained Life as bishop, priest or deacon. This is a call to a life of apostolic ministry that makes visible the presence of Jesus the Christ in the Church. The call is to act in His Name and to proclaim His mystery. It is to serve and to lead the People of God.
Ordained Reign-makers include those called to the ministerial priesthood, that is, bishops and priests, as well as those called to help and serve the ministerial priesthood, namely, deacons. The fullness of the Sacrament of Holy Orders is conferred in the consecration of a bishop. a) Diocesan or "Secular" Priests share in the function of the bishops' ministry as co-workers for the fulfillment of the apostolic mission entrusted to the Church by Christ. The priest seeks to bring Christ to the people, and to bring the people to Christ, not only through what he does, but also through who he is.
Although diocesan priests move from one parish to another, or from one ministry to another, they normally remain attached to one particular diocese throughout their lifetime. At the time of ordination as a transitional deacon, (usually during the year before he becomes a priest), a man is incardinated into a diocese. This means that he belongs to a particular diocese. These diocesan priests promise to obey their bishop and to live a life of celibacy. They do not profess a vow of celibacy as do Religious. Not all priests are diocesan priests. Some members of Religious Institutes and other Consecrated forms of life are also ordained as priests, and they do not belong to a particular diocese. They may work in parishes for a period of time and, in this way, they support the ministry of diocesan priests. However, their primary focus is linked to the charism of their own Institute, be this as missionaries, specialists in retreat ministry, educators, contemplative monks, etc. Depending on the Canonical Institute to which the Religious priest belongs, he may live the common life with others of the Institute or he might live in the local parish. He can be sent anywhere that his superior sends him, provided the local bishop will allow him to function as a cleric in that local diocese. b) Permanent Deacons receive the Sacrament of Holy Orders, but are not ordained to the ministerial priesthood as are priests. The deaconate was restored in response to Vatican II and is usually known as the permanent deaconate because these deacons are not on the way to priesthood. Permanent deacons are ordained for tasks of service of the Church. Their ordination confers on them important functions in the ministry of the Word, divine worship, pastoral governance, and the service of charity. They carry out these tasks under the pastoral authority of their bishop to whom they are specially attached. Being a deacon involves a serious level of commitment, both at the stage of preparation and after ordination. Permanent deacons normally continue working in their own profession, unless they have retired. The varied professional training and experience of permanent deacons in business, health care, social services etc. often makes it possible for them to take on administrative and organizational responsibilities in a parish or diocese. The permanent deaconate is currently open to married and single men. A married deacon's primary responsibility remains his commitment to his family. top 4. The LIVING of our vocation: Concluding Considerations As children of God created in the image and likeness of God and destined to become fashioned by the Holy Spirit into the image of Christ, it is clear that being called to holiness and to mission promises to be a profoundly exciting adventure affecting and permeating every moment and age of our lives. This is because our vocation, both universal and particular, is a call from God Whose Name is Holy and Who does "great things" in us. a) Vocation and Career As we try to discover how God is calling us to holiness and mission as single, married, consecrated or ordained Christians, it is important to distinguish carefully between vocation and career or occupation.
Vocation and career are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, our "work" talents are to unite, not separate, ourselves from others in our common Christian call to holiness and mission.
Finally, it is our vocation, not our careers nor "work world", that should guide our lives. Always in the holy adventure that is our lives, and especially in the midst of increasing "work" demands, we need to be guided by our universal and particular vocation to holiness and mission. We need to discern its ongoing application to the circumstances of our personal and collective lives, and we need to re-commit ourselves periodically to this sacred call. b) Discernment Discernment is a process wherein one seeks to perceive clearly what God wants and to judge accurately. It creates that open space in our lives in which the Holy Spirit can work. Whether initial or ongoing discernment of one's vocation(s), this process consists of several important elements These are as follows. Develop a life of prayer. Since a vocation implies a relationship, (for if someone is called, someone must do the calling), build an ongoing relationship with the God Who calls. This is done by a life of prayer. It is more than only turning to God in times of crisis. An ongoing relationship with God is built by silently listening to the Voice of God. Set aside time to simply "sit" in the presence of God. Listen to God's Voice in the experiences and insights, as well as in the events and people in your life. Nourish this relationship with God by contemplative reading, especially of the scriptures. Seek to become more knowledgeable about your spiritual, psychological (i.e., mental, emotional, intuitional) and physical abilities as well as your limitations. While gathering this "evidence" can be tedious, it can also be exciting as you discover what God found and finds so infinitely loveable about you. Seek to be come more knowledge by reading about our universal Christian vocation and your particular vocation to which you are called. Visit Catholic libraries; subscribe to Catholic periodicals and newspapers (e.g., the Sentinel); visit websites dedicated to Catholic vocations (e.g. http://community.catholic.org/ re all four vocations), use the key word: Catholic vocations. Find a guide, a mature concerned Christian, who is willingly to walk with you for at least part of your faith journey. This spiritual companion will listen, encourage, challenge and pray with you as you freely share the movements of the Spirit in your life Candidly look at your motivation. Why do you want this? Are the movements within you from God? Or self? Or peer pressure? Or cultural demands? Or? The essential questions are: Is this for the love of Jesus the Christ? Will this fashion you in the image of Christ? Will this help to make present the Reign of God? Be patient with yourself--and others. Time is needed, and there is a season for all things. And be at peace. You will know God's will as God's peace, which surpasses all understanding, pervades your heart and mind. By seeking God's will, you will experience inner peace, even if intellectually or otherwise you find what you are being called to is difficult. Make the most loving choice. Do not expect absolute certainty or infallibility! Choose what you sense to be God's will as you understand it. Confirm your decision by a waiting period devoted to prayer. If your inner tranquility continues, you've most likely made the right decision. c) Prayer during Discernment
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