What does God want you to do with your life? Whether you're ordained, professed religious, single, or married, Personal Vocation will show you how to: discover the elements of your vocation; commit yourself to that mission; and remain faithful to your personal call from God. For the young adult making education and career decisions... For the older individual coming to grips with vocation concerns... this book offers information and a perspective that can encourage, inspire, and re-energize.
Helps readers identify their personal vocation, or special way of being, so that they may reach out more effectively to others. Elaborates on the connection between personal vocation and the Spiritual Exercises.
“Beautifully written, compellingly personal, and a treasure to read.” —Most Rev. Charles J. Chaput, OFM, Cap., Archbishop of Philadelphia “This spiritually grounded, easy-to-read treatise is a solid piece of research, and yet is still packed throughout with supporting anecdotes that the reader will recognize and appreciate. Eminently practicable, Unrepeatable is for every Christian, especially the teacher, counselor, or spiritual director, who is truly serious about sifting through the cultural morass to find the ‘right’ vocation, rather than just a job.” —Bishop Robert Barron, Auxiliary Bishop, Archdiocese of Los Angeles What if we were able to gain profound insight into the unique design, creative drive, and potential destiny of the people in our lives? The bold promise of this book is that we can. This ability carries an awesome responsibility: We must all be mentors and midwives to the personal vocations of others. Unrepeatable is about the urgent need for each of us to cultivate the vocations of others and the steps we should take to do it well. By smartly weaving evocative stories of those who have radically lived out their callings with practical tools for discernment and mentorship, Luke Burgis and Joshua Miller—who have a combined twenty-five years of experience helping people and organizations discover their purpose—turn staid perceptions of vocation on their head. Unrepeatable will equip you to: • Renew your church, school, community, or company by empowering every member to discover, embrace, and fully live out their unique calling • Confidently teach and mentor young people in critical skills of discernment and decision-making • Know and be known by others in a deeply personal way through a technique that unlocks and awakens the deepest desires of the heart As we enter into the stories of others’ lives, we enter into the story of God’s love. There is no greater adventure. Unrepeatable invites you to be a part of it.
This little work is born of a profound personal spiritual experience had in 1965. Shared literally around the world notably through the ministry of spiritual direction within and outside the experience of the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises, it is here communicated for the first time in writing. It has to do with the discernment and living out of that deepest core of being that is a person's truest self and unrepeatable uniqueness - the secret of unity and integration at the heart of a person's life, his/her unique God-given meaning in life, centred in Christ Jesus. No wonder it results in all-round transformation in depth, opening out most effectively onto social responsibility and commitment in Christian life and mission.
Over the years, the Holy Father has said much about the meaning of vocation and how Catholics should respond to God's call, but it has been scattered through dozens of addresses he has given all over the world. Now at last this compact compendium collects the Pope's choicest remarks on God's call and how you should strive to hear and obey Him. He helps you clarify what God is calling you to do, explains how and when God calls, and even helps parents face up to their children's vocations!
How shall we live? What is the good life? What is the value of a person? What is my place in this world? Is God active in this world? These are questions that have been asked in every culture and in every era. From the Hebrew concept of Shalom (wholeness/well-being) to the Greek concept of Eudaimonia (happiness) and even to the American notion that all people have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, great thinkers have pondered what it means for humans to flourish. The doctrine of vocation uniquely answers these questions. A certain level of security, prosperity, and freedom are essential components of human flourishing. God provides these components by working through humans in their stations in life such as parents and police (security), farmers and bankers (prosperity), and soldiers and governments (freedom). And yet there is more for which we strive. We are the type of beings whose wonderment drives us to the pursuit of knowledge, justice, and achievement. In short, we desire to be justified. We want to be valued. We want to be right or just. We strive for epic-ness. But no mere human adulation will satisfy. Nor can we justify ourselves before God with our broken lives. God justifies Christians through Christ and then uses them. God adds another component to human flourishing: purpose. He uses Christians in his economy of love to take care of the world. He lifts us from the ordinary to accomplish the extraordinary, even as we pursue ordinary tasks. For the Christian, these stations become callings or vocations. This can only be fully appreciated if the Christian knows that he or she is free from pleasing God through works. Once the Christian is freed from this burden the whole of the Christian life is reoriented to the free exercise of love towards neighbor. It is the highest calling, the truly good, flourishing, and happy life.
Vocation is more than a job. It is our relationships and responsibilities woven into the work of God. In following our calling to seek the welfare of our world, we find that it flourishes and so do we. Garber offers here a book for parents, artists, students, public servants and businesspeople—for all who want to discover the virtue of vocation.
Until recently theologians have been in a deep slumber about the subject of vocations. This volume represents one of the first awakenings in the theological community to this subject. The ten contributors, all theologians at Loyola University Chicago, present original essays that explore vocations, or callings.
