Happy National Vocation Awareness Week 2021!!

I love writing about Vocations. A Vocation is literally a call from God. How could anything get better than that?? We all are called by God to do different things at different times throughout our lives. We are called when we are young to be sons and daughters, students, and friends. When we get a bit older we are called to a mission in some sort of career, or by serving our families or the Church. This is the kind of Vocation that we, as the Church of the United States, discuss this week, specifically Vocations to the priesthood and consecrated religious life, though we encourage and celebrate all Vocations. The important thing to remember is that no matter how Jesus calls you to love in this life, ultimately, the Vocation of every single person is to know, love, and serve God in this life so that we can be happy with Him in the next.

If you feel God tugging on your heartstrings in one direction or another, GO, FOLLOW HIM! Or maybe you're not sure. If all you've had is a strong desire and peace when you think about which state of life you will enter, that's a sign of where God is leading you. GO, FOLLOW HIM! Maybe you've never even considered that God has a magnificent plan for your life. It's amazing. GO, FOLLOW HIM, and He will lead you on a beautiful journey that you never could've imagined!!

I speak this from personal experience. Long story short, for a long time, I felt called to religious life. I thought I was supposed to become a Sister and serve the Church in that way. Over time though, I realized that I was only focusing on my own desires- not asking God to reveal to me what HIS plan was. Now, after lots of prayer and tons of confirmation from God, I have found that He is calling me to be a wife and mother someday. : )

There are tons of resources out there for people of all ages discerning their vocations. The USCCB website has some great resources, and any website for a religious community will too.

The best piece of advice about discerning my Vocation was given to me in confession by a priest at a Steubenville conference. I don't even know who he was, but I am SO grateful that he told me this. He said that in discernment, we don't need to know the path right away. Our job is to have an open and receptive posture to whatever God wants, and God will work out the rest. It's okay to not have it all figured out. Our God is a God of love and a God of surprises. He has a plan for your life and for mine that is greater and more beautiful than we can even imagine, and in His time, He will reveal it.

Last year for National Vocations Awareness Week I posted some resources along with interviews with a few people who are boldly living out their Vocations. Here are the links to those posts:

Vocations Resources Post- https://catholicteenlife.wixsite.com/mysite/post/vocations-resources

An Interview with a Religious Sister-https://catholicteenlife.wixsite.com/mysite/post/an-interview-with-a-religious-sister

An Interview with a Seminarian https://catholicteenlife.wixsite.com/mysite/post/an-interview-with-a-seminarian

An Interview with a Priest: https://catholicteenlife.wixsite.com/mysite/post/an-interview-with-a-priest

Please share them (or any other Catholic Teen Life posts) with anyone you think could benefit from reading them!

Prayer to Know My Vocation from a prayer card that I have:

Lord, I want to be happy with you in this life and spend eternity with you in the life to come. From the first moment of my existence, you knew my Vocation. Please help me discover your plan for my life. Help me to know myself. Help me to overcome my fears. Help me to want what you want. Help me to trust You completely. Send your Holy Spirit into my mind and hearts so that I can see the gifts you've given me and hear Your call to serve the Church. Increase my desire to bring others to you and to help them reach Heaven. Mary Most Holy, Mother of God, pray for me, that I can discover my Vocation and have the courage to respond in faith.

Let's pray for one another that God will show us how He desires for us to love in this life so that we can be happy with Him in the next : ) God bless you!!