What is a Vocation
All people are called to love and serve God. Some people are called to serve their brothers and sisters by devoting their lives in service to the poor. Most people are called to family life and bring new life into the world through marriage. Some may be called to a life of holiness as single people. Some people are called to the Active Consecrated Life. Others are called in love to give themselves to God, in a life dedicated to prayer, through the monastic life.
A vocation is a mystery. It is a gift of God, and we do not always understand it as soon as we receive it, for all God’s gifts, especially his spiritual gifts, share in his own hidden mystery. Every vocation contains a promise too. Something is being prepared by God for us. The initiative and choice in every vocation is God’s, not ours. Nevertheless, a vocation is something very personal. The certainty we sometimes feel of having heard deep within us a call is no illusion. The call always leaves us freedom of choice: this is what makes our call so personal.