Vocation

"Vocations are born in silence"

"Your vocation should be understood as a conversation with God rather than a guessing game, in which you have to try to read God's mind. The latter picture of God is not too positive."

"Vocation is the spine of existence"

Realizing a vocation is a process in which a person accepts that God is part of his personal creation, his personal situation, and his personal future. This, however, is not always an easy process, perhaps not ever an easy process.

The challenge of vocation, when accepted and begun, opens each person to himself while at the same time opening each person to the world. The beginning of this challenge is also a form of opening. In accepting the reality of vocation, each person must open themselves to God, and once opened to God each person realizes a few things.

1. God is interested in me, and he cares for me and my future.
2. God has created me with gifts, and these gifts should be used for a certain end.
3. The world has certain needs, some of which could act as ends for my gifts.
4. God's care for me will help me realize my place in the world.

Thus, realizing a certain vocation is a process of searching for gifts in yourself, searching for needs in the world and listening to where you fit in those needs. Realizing a vocation is not simply a task of triage, wherein you choose to offer yourself to the highest need that you see. Rather relying on the vision of God, a vocation is attentively listening to where God opens a space in the world for you.