Open the Book

176 Pages·2003·1.79 MB·English

Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division
Our Sunday Visitor, Inc.
Huntington, Indiana 46750
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ISBN: 1-59276-021-X (Inventory No. T72)
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Cover design by Monica Haneline
Cover images courtesy of RubberBall Productions
Interior design by Robert L. Hoffman
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The authors gratefully dedicate this book to their parents,
families, teachers, friends, and others who have helped them find
and try to live out their personal vocations.

T C
ABLE OF ONTENTS
Introduction................................................................................9
Chapter 1
Organizing a Life........................................................................13
Chapter 2
A Historical Overview of Personal Vocation ................................37
Chapter 3
The Emergence of Personal Vocation ..........................................65
Chapter 4
Personal Vocation: The Idea in Depth .........................................93
Chapter 5
Putting the Idea to Work...........................................................125
About the Authors....................................................................163
Index.......................................................................................165

I
NTRODUCTION
E
very year in the spring the Church celebrates a World Day of Prayer for
Vocations when Catholics are urged to storm heaven more than they are
accustomed to do on behalf of this noble cause. In 2003 the fortieth of
these annual observances fell on May 11, the Fourth Sunday of Easter.
The theme was “Vocation to Service.”
In his message for the 2003 vocations day, Pope John Paul II cited
Jesus as the universal model of service. Then, having made this point, he
joined it to vocation in these words:
In the Bible, service is always linked to a specific call that comes
from God. For this reason, it represents the greatest fulfillment of
the dignity of the creature... . This was the case in the life of
Jesus, too, the faithful Servant who was called to carry out the
universal work of redemption.
Service, vocation, and the work of redemption: central in Jesus’ life, cen-
tral also in the lives of Jesus’ followers. And not just vocation in a generic
sense, but vocation in a sense that is special, unique, for each individual.
The Holy Father continued:
How can one not read in the story of the “servant Jesus” the story
of every vocation: the story that the Creator has planned for every
human being, the story that inevitably passes through the call to
serve and culminates in the discovery of the new name, designed
by God for each individual? In these “names,” people can grasp
9
Personal Vocation
their own identity, directing themselves to that self-fulfillment
which makes them free and happy.
These “names” are personal vocations.
That needs explaining of course. Personal vocation is enormously
important yet probably not widely understood. We have written this book
with the hope of remedying that.
Start with the basics. In creating us as human beings, God gives us the
capacity to make free choices. Confronting two or more possibilities, we
often say, “I could do this or do that,” or “I could do this or not do it.”
Having thought it over, more or less, and sometimes struggled with our
feelings, we make up our minds and carry out our choice, realizing that it
is ours in a profound sense: we are responsible for it rather than just expe-
riencing it.
Although God gives us this capacity to make free choices, He is not
indifferent to the choices we make. We can make bad choices, do things
that hurt others and ourselves, and even though God allows that, He
does not want it. He always wants us to make good choices and has made
that clear from the beginning. So when we choose and act wrongly, we
disobey God. We sin.
Often, though, we need to choose between two or more good possi-
bilities. Whichever we choose, we will not hurt others or ourselves, nor
will we disobey God and sin. Is it then the case that God is indifferent to
what we choose?
No, not at all.
Not all good possibilities are equally good. As a loving Father, God
prefers that we choose the best. If we always did that, we would make the
best use of our abilities, take advantage of the greatest opportunities, and
benefit others and ourselves as richly as possible. And, as with our other
good choices, we also would meet the most serious threats and challenges,
and care for others and ourselves as effectively as we could.
God has given each of us a unique set of gifts. By revealing himself,
especially in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, he also has given us
far better possibilities than we would otherwise have had. Specifically,
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