Living Faith – Learning to Love In Your Vocation

The basics of Catholic spiritual growth are about becoming the person God wants you to be and realizing the destiny that He has planned for us. But in the end Catholic spiritual growth and having a truly living faith are all about growing in love. That’s exactly what your vocation is all about. Your vocation is your “school of love.” It’s the place where you learn to love as Jesus loves – completely, selflessly, holding nothing back. But your vocation can only be your school of love if you fully embrace it and truly live it. Here are three steps to fully living your vocation so you can come to the fulness of love.

Step 1: Realize That Your Vocation to Love is Part of a truly living faith

Many Catholics aren’t even aware that they have a vocation. There has been an informal tradition in the culture of Catholicism to consider a “vocation” limited to a call to the priesthood or religious life. Anyone not called to one or the other was considered to not have a vocation at all. Marriage and family life was considered the “default” position.

The Second Vatican Council reminded us of what has always been true. Every Catholic is called to a vocation of love. And marriage and family life is every bit a vocation as the priesthood or religious life. Each of these vocations is a school of love. And everyone is called to work toward perfection within his or her vocation. While it used to be assumed (at least by the laity) that priests and religious had already reached a state of perfection and holiness, this has never been true. All are called to conversion within the context of their vocation. And all of us struggle with that call.

Step 2: Focus in Your Catholic Spiritual Growth on Growing in Selfless Love, Rather Than on Being Fulfilled

There is so much emphasis today on self-fulfillment. We have humanist psychology to thank for that. Now don’t get me wrong. God wants us to be fulfilled. The problem is that how the secular culture teaches us to find fulfillment is actually a sure recipe for discontentment. Secular culture puts a lot of emphasis on creating a lifestyle that makes you “happy” and “independent.” So . . . How has that been working for us so far? People struggle their entire life chasing after a dream lifestyle that most of us will never find. People who we assume would have found it prove to be depressed, addicted to drugs and alcohol, and intensely unhappy.

The truth is that we can never be fulfilled as long as we only look out for ourselves. Our attempts to do so will eventually come crashing down around us. As the Second Vatican Council taught in its document Gaudium et Spes, and as Saint Pope John Paul II repeated over and over again during his pontificate, “Man Cannot Fully Find Himself, Except Through A Sincere Gift Of Himself.”

In my opinion, this is one of the greatest problems with marriage today. We expect marriage to mean fulfillment in the selfish sense. We expect our spouse to make us happy. And we either see children as an impediment to that happiness, and therefore keep our families small, or we expect children to make us happy in the selfish sense. And when our expectations are to met, we say that marriage has failed. But marriage is a school of love. It’s supposed to teach us selflessness, not selfishness. It’s supposed to train us to give ourselves away a little more each day. And in doing so, ironically enough, we end up finding our fulfillment. Just not in the way that our culture expects.

Step 3: Recognize That Your Vocation is a Process

I just love the phrase “school of love.” It’s just a perfect description of our vocation. No matter what vocation you are called to, you enter a school of love. That means that you will be facing challenges and obstacles. It means that you will need to consciously work on growing in selfless love for those your vocation puts under your charge.

Accept this school as an adventure of a living faith! But also see it as a process. Don’t expect perfection in your vocation right away. Instead, actively seek out your weaknesses and turn them into problems to be solved. Challenge yourself to find a way every day to love more completely. Priests that fail to do this eventually come to assume that their parishioners exist to serve them instead of the other way around. Married couples that fail to do this eventually come to see their marriage as stale and boring. But if you embrace the challenge of your vocation every day, you will find that it is an adventure that leads to excitement and fulfillment – and ultimately leads you to God, who is love itself.

Your Challenge

Now that you realize that you ARE called by God to learn how to love perfectly within your vocation, it’s time to get started! What is one thing that you can start doing TODAY that will help you love more radically within your vocation.
Your Next Steps
Are you ready to embrace the challenge of living your vocation more intensely and completely? The course “The Adventure of Faith” from the Keys to Spiritual Growth series offers you practical strategies for clarifying and living more intensely your office, your vocation, and your mission. You can get started really easily with the free “Keys to Spiritual Growth” course. This course will introduce you to all five of the most important areas of spirituality that we need to nurture if we want to deepen our relationship with God. Click here to register for this free course, then consider enrolling in the full course “The Adventure of Faith.”

Your Action Steps

1. Leave a comment below telling us one way you will live your vocation more intensely
2. Check out the opportunity below to learn more about your faith.
3. Consider investing in the full “Adventure of Faith” course
4. Actively look for ways to participate more fully in a living faith!

Brought to you by Jeffrey S. Arrowood at From the Abbey, dedicated to helping you rediscover the JOY of learning and living your faith so you can grow in intimacy with God.