It’s Your Call

Friday 20th April 2018

It’s your call – that is the question that we are being asked to consider this weekend on the World day of Prayer for Vocations. How will we answer our unique calling?

In his message for Vocations Sunday, Pope Francis tells us there is a need to listen, discern and live to hear our calling from God.

Listening 

The Lord’s call – let it be said at the outset – is not as clear-cut as any of those things we can hear, see or touch in our daily experience. God comes silently and discreetly, without imposing on our freedom. Thus it can happen that his voice is drowned out by the many worries and concerns that fill our minds and hearts.

We need, then, to learn how to listen carefully to his word and the story of his life, but also to be attentive to the details of our own daily lives, in order to learn how to view things with the eyes of faith, and to keep ourselves open to the surprises of the Spirit.

We will never discover the special, personal calling that God has in mind for us if we remain enclosed in ourselves, in our usual way of doing things, in the apathy of those who fritter away their lives in their own little world. We would lose the chance to dream big and to play our part in the unique and original story that God wants to write with us.

Discerning

When Jesus, in the synagogue of Nazareth, reads the passage of the prophet Isaiah, he discerns the content of the mission for which he was sent, and presents it to those who awaited the Messiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour (Lk 4:18-19).

In the same way, each of us can discover his or her own vocation only through spiritual discernment. This is “a process by which a person makes fundamental choices, in dialogue with the Lord and listening to the voice of the Spirit, starting with the choice of one’s state in life” 

Living

The joy of the Gospel, which makes us open to encountering God and our brothers and sisters, does not abide our slowness and our sloth. It will not fill our hearts if we keep standing by the window with the excuse of waiting for the right time, without accepting this very day the risk of making a decision. Vocation is today! The Christian mission is now! Each one of us is called – whether to the lay life in marriage, to the priestly life in the ordained ministry, or to a life of special consecration – in order to become a witness of the Lord, here and now.

We are grateful to all those who support vocations within the diocese. We ask that you continue to pray for our seminarians and all those who are on the journey of discernment. We also give thanks to all those who have chosen to serve the diocese.

You can find out more about the diocesan vocations office here

If you would like to support the work of the Ecclesiastical Education Fund, which funds the training and support of those in formation for the diaconate or priesthood for the Diocese of Salford. You can do so via:

BAC Transfer to:

Ecclesiastical Education Fund

Account: 80297526

Sort Code: 20-55-34

or

Cheques made to: Ecclesiastical Education Fund

Finance Office Cathedral Centre, 3 Ford St, Salford M3 6DP.