Discerning Life's Call

Dear Friends,

Today marks a first in my blog history. I have invited one of our Sisters to share her thoughts about Good Shepherd Sunday, which since 1963 has been designated as the World Day of Prayer for Vocations. Sister Donna Del Santo has been our Congregation’s Vocation Director for many years. I thank her for sharing her thoughts today.

~ Sister Joan Sobala

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In our second reading today, we are reminded that “we are God’s children now, what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him.” (1 John 3.2)

When we listen and respond to the call to become the person God dreams for us to be, we will most resemble God. It doesn’t matter who our parents are or what resources we have, we are each uniquely called.

This message is re-enforced in our gospel when Jesus says…“I am the Good Shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me.” (John 10.13) Jesus knows who we are and who we are called to be.

Our Church needs a variety of leaders and ministers to do its work of spreading the good news of Jesus Christ, including but not limited to those called to religious life, ordained priesthood or diaconate.

While we may earnestly pray that our Church be supplied with leaders for its needs, and we may want more young people to offer themselves as priests, religious and lay leaders in the Church, we tend to exclude our own children, grandchildren, nephews and nieces. I know a young woman who went to Cornell. Her mother said to her, “Tell me now, if you’re going to be a Sister. If so, I’m not paying for Cornell!” Yet it is parents, grandparents, godparents…who are their children’s first Vocation Directors. I had gone to a wake where I met a former classmate’s mother. She told me, “I think my granddaughter Sarah might have a call to religious life. What can I do to help her?” I told her of an upcoming Come & See event and encouraged her to tell Sarah about it and she did. Now Sarah is at least exploring Religious Life.

I never thought of myself as a candidate for Religious Life either. I was a FARC, a Fallen Away Roman Catholic. I was living a good life, just not a religious one. Yet God had other designs for my life…I was so haunted by God’s call that in 1992, I entered the Sisters of Saint Joseph where I have found a home and discovered that as a Sister I would grow to be my best self, where my heart’s deepest desire would meet God’s dream for me.

Probably many of you could tell a similar story, whether you’ve chosen the vocation to be married, with or without children, or the vocation of a single life, or the vocation to be a priest, Sister, or deacon. I bet each of you can think of a moment in your faith journey where you might have resisted God’s invitation, yet…with the help of others, you were able to respond with a yes.

Are you inviting young people to discern their life’s call?

I’d like to challenge you to talk to at least one teen or young adult in the next week about what they’re thinking about their call in life. Invite them to consider religious life as a possible choice. And if you are a teen or a young adult, I challenge you to find out more about religious life or priesthood. Call or email me at Vocations@ssjrochester.org. If need be, I can direct you to another Vocation Director elsewhere. Let us know how we can be of assistance to you or someone you know on their vocation journey.

Both our Church and our world will be better served because you care enough about the Church to do this.

~ Sister Donna Del Santo