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05 Feb 2012 - Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

Both the epistle and the gospel this week provide "call stories" for reflection on vocation. Saint Paul describes the nature of his mission, and Jesus affirms that preaching and healing are the reasons for which he has come. How do you understand the "obligation," to use Paul's term, God has given you in your ministry? What is your purpose?

Vocation call life calling

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Homily stories

05 Feb 2012 - Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

SAINT PAUL wrote of the "obligation" he felt to preach the gospel--that is, he was talking about his vocation. When I was trying to figure out how God was calling me, I felt as if I would never get to the point of knowing for sure whether God was calling me. I realized later that the more I consciously tended to God and sorted through my life with all its hopes and dreams and struggles, the more I was growing into my calling. The first step for me was to be more faithful to prayer. I also began seeing a spiritual director who could help me to see the ways God was moving in my life. I began reading more of the saints, and, when I was finally willing to admit I might be attracted to religious life, to get to know sisters around me. Over time I began to feel shifts within my own self toward feeling more like myself, feeling more alive than ever. By being intentional about my discernment and also integrating it with my everyday life, I found that I had already been living into the calling that God was nudging me toward. (Adapted from Ask Sr. Julie about Vocations, vocationnetwork.org)

Authors Sister Julie Vieira I.H.M.

Vocation call life calling religious life

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Homily stories

08 Jan 2012 - Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord, Cycle B

NATIONAL Vocation Awareness Week begins Monday, so we might want to ask ourselves: What does it mean that God "calls" us? Can you run but not hide when God drafts you for a particular service. Is free will a polite fiction when God has our destiny all worked out in advance? The short answers are: Our freedom is real, human history has no blueprint, and God is prepared to greet any choice we might make with a constellation of grace and possibility. Like any divine gift, our freedom comes complete with responsibility. It does, after all, make a difference which choices we make. Choose the way of destruction, and you're in for a world of hurt. Choose the way of planting and building, and the future blossoms into fuller and greater life. Yet we say God calls us. To what, if not to particular things? God wants you to be fully alive, to the height and breadth and depth of your being, which means loving, giving, expressing, and radiant--just as God is. We're made in the image and likeness of God, right? Answer that call, and you have stepped into your vocation for sure.

Authors Alice Camille

national vocation awareness week call Freedom responsibility

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Homily stories

03 Apr 2011 - Fourth Sunday of Lent, Cycle A

When my niece was about 12 years old, she brought some friends with her to visit her grandma. While there, she showed them the pictures of her uncles on my mother's dresser, commenting on each of them. "That's my Uncle Dominic," she said, pointing to my picture, "he's the ugly one so he had to become a priest." My mother overheard her granddaughter and was concerned. So she sat her down away from her friends and quietly talked to her. I asked my mom what she said, and her response, remarkable in its honesty, was "Now, honey, you can't talk about your uncle like that. Even if it is true, he is still my son." Oh, well! I guess I know now the origin and the reason for my vocation. Actually, it's a good thing that it is not by our appearances that God calls us, or there would not have been the great King David to lead the people of Israel. And it is also reassuring that our appearance in no way reflects the sins and faults of our forebearers. God does not limit us in that way. Instead, we stand on our own, warts and wrinkles, strengths and weaknesses, and are expected to respond to God openly, as Saint Paul says, for all to see. Lent gives us the opportunity to step into the light and get it right.

Authors Father Dominic Grassi

Lent priest Vocation call

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Homily stories

23 Jan 2011 - Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

Jesus called Simon and Peter while they were in the middle of their livelihood--fishing. He showed them the deeper dimension to their work and their life by telling them they would now be "fishers of men." Jesus calls us, too, in the middle of our lives. How might we understand that call? If we are students, then we can be searchers for deeper knowledge and truth. If we are salespeople, we can be providers of what satisfies people's deepest needs. If we are parents, we can raise our children to the light of Christ. If we are government employees, we can be workers for justice. If we are in business, we can be people who invite one and all to the banquet, or Good Samaritans, or any number of other images of salvation from the parables that apply to our daily opportunities and challenges.

call fishermen Vocation

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Who's listening?

27 Jun 2010 - Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

Catholic bishops have recently called on local Christians to develop a culture of discernment, one in which people take seriously their calling and make efforts to nurture that call in their life choices. Do the people in your pews recognize that they have been called, too? The readings this week talk about calls and the cost of responding. Yet what is the cost of not responding? We either actively pursue the call to live our Christianity or we are likely getting lost.

Discernment Vocation call life calling

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Homily themes

27 Jun 2010 - Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

Follow me. In addition to the examples in today's readings, the act of being called in the midst of one's tasks occurs several times in scripture. When God called Moses from the burning bush (Exod. 3:1) and asked Jesse about his son David (1 Sam. 16:11), both of them were tending the flocks. Amos explained, "I was a shepherd and a dresser of sycamores" when God told him to go prophecy to his people of Israel (Amos 7:14). Gideon was threshing wheat when the angel of the Lord appeared to him (Judges 6:11). When the spirit of God rushed upon him, Saul had just come in from the fields (1 Sam. 16:11). Among the apostles, Simon and Andrew were washing their nets after a long night of unsuccessful fishing, and Levi (Matthew) the tax collector was on the job, "sitting at the customs post" (Luke 5:1-11, 27-28). Being called by God, we once thought, was rare and special. It is actually a universal invitation. Biblical call stories reveal real people in ordinary situations being summoned into the extraordinary vocation of doing God's will. Saying yes or no to God's call is our prerogative. But an immediate, decisive, and unconditional response is required.

call life calling Vocation

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Homily stories

27 Jun 2010 - Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

I had friends who knew from a young age what they wanted to do as a career. One friend always wanted to be a cop. Another knew from first grade on that she wanted to teach. Another wanted to be an architect. I envied them. I knew I wanted to be a short stop for the Chicago White Sox like my hero "Little Louie" Aparicio. I also knew I wasn't that good. Many of those friends growing up are now in jobs that didn't even exist when we were back in grammar school, like computer programmers, medical technicians, and web designers. Which leads me to believe that while parents try to teach their kids the many lessons of growing up, one lesson ought to be how to listen to and answer our inner call. Each of us is called. Few hear that call like the voice of God calling in the night. Usually, we discover our call, like Elisha, while doing other things. For most of us our call comes as a persistent, inner prompting that can be easily drowned out by the lure of money, power, security, or fame. But we won't be happy until we hear and respond to our innermost call. Discernment-learning to hear God's call-is a skill every Christian needs to cultivate. What are you doing to help the kids in your life learn to listen, and hear, and follow the promptings of God in their hearts?

Authors Tom McGrath

call life calling vocations Discernment

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Homily stories

11 Jul 2010 - Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

WHO WAS the Good Samaritan? We don't know for sure, but it is clear that he was a layperson, not a religious professional. In fact, it is probable that he was some sort of businessperson-for why else would he be on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho early in the morning, just happen to have oil and wine with him, be able to pay the innkeeper to take care of the victim, and promise to return on his "way back"? In other words, the Good Samaritan was in the midst of doing his job when he was asked to be a good neighbor. What the Good Samaritan did was simple: He saw someone in need; he stopped and did what he could. Acting like the Good Samaritan is simply what you do if you are a follower of Jesus. Jesus told the rest of us to "go and do likewise." That is the essence of the Christian vocation. Where do you find your vocation? You find it in the midst of what you are doing.

Authors Gregory F. Augustine Pierce

Vocation neighbor love your neighbor

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Who's listening?

31 Jan 2010 - Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

Love, faith, prophecy, vocation. The hearers of today’s readings will want to find themselves in these great themes. God tells Jeremiah his prophetic vocation was chosen from before his birth—in other words, he always had it, whether he knew it or not. Ask people today to think seriously about their own Christian vocation. What is it? How do they discern it? Perhaps it is to love and proclaim love, despite the difficulties of doing so. As both Saint Paul and the gospel tell us, generosity is key. Love is essential to the other virtues, even faith, and the important thing to know about love is that it is generous. So it is with hearing God’s prophetic message. Unlike the skeptical inhabitants of Nazareth, we can believe with love. We can be both prophets and the hearers of prophets, if we love with charity and open hearts.

Vocation Prophecy virtues Saint Paul

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