So here’s a question that I posted on Facebook:
Do you worry about missing your calling?
I hear from many people that they’d “just love to do x or y but it’s too late. I guess I missed my calling.”
College students and other young adults often find themselves anxious about “choosing wrong” or as one young adult and Catholic volunteer, Valerie, astutely writes:
I worry that I’ll be too selfish or closed to live it out. I guess I’m also sort of worried that I’ll be too wrapped up in myself and my own desires that I’ll miss His calling. Or that I won’t recognize it, or know how to do it properly. Or something.
Vocational discernment is a long too overlooked ministry in the Catholic church. People often report feeling disconnected to the church in general or that the church is “out of touch” or that priests and lay ministers who work for the church don’t understand the lives of “real people.”
I think they often have a point.
As a spiritual director and campus minister, I think this is my main job–to push the envelope and ask the question “Well, why the hell do you want to be a pharmacist anyway? What’s the motivation? How did you discover that you wanted to do that–and most importantly, how does it express who you are called to be more than what you are called to do?” We even do this a lot when we take students to community service projects and alternative breaks or even just a fun trip somewhere. Why does any of this matter? Where is God speaking to us in this experience?
All important questions and I’m at a think tank in Collegeville Minnesota this week at the Collegeville Institute discussing how we might more intentionally build communities of discernment in religious places.
What are your thoughts though? Do you worry about this and what do you think the church could help provide?
I’ll be awaiting your thoughts.
