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A Call Within a Call

by Dr. Patricia Cooney-Hathaway

Many of us grew up with two misconceptions about the meaning of vocation within the Catholic Church. First, having a vocation applied only to priests and religious. Second, God had a hidden, secret plan for each of us that we somehow had to discover.

Both are false. Vatican II corrected the first by explaining that all of us by our baptism have a vocation to holiness and mission. Let's explore the second misconception through the following story.

At a conference on spiritual direction, a priest shared the following experience about a young man discerning his vocation through a directed retreat. He is drawn to the priesthood, yet also desires to marry and raise a family. After several days of prayer, the young man becomes increasingly frustrated. God is silent.

Finally, he comes to the director, surprised yet relieved, and says, It's up to me. God said whatever way I want to return the gift of my life is fine with God.

The point of this story is that God does not have a preconceived plan regarding our lives. Rather, God invites, God plants a desire within us and we are free to respond or choose another path. Here God asked the young man, what do you desire? How do you want to return the gift of your life to me? Instead of trying to discover God's plan for his life, the young man was free to explore his true desires, aided by the Holy Spirit's inspiration, regarding his vocation.

I suggest the same was true for Mother Teresa of Calcutta. At the age of twelve, Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu was moved by a desire to become a missionary. At the age of eighteen, she left home in 1928 to join the Sisters of Loreto in Ireland. At her religious profession, she received the name Sr. Mary Teresa after St. Thre of Lisieux. In 1931, she departed for India where she was assigned to teach at St. Mary's School for Girls in Calcutta.

She describes these years as ones of profound happiness, fidelity, and joya sign of God's confirmation of her vocation.

On September 10, 1946, during a train ride from Calcutta to Darjelling for her annual retreat, she received what she calls an inspiration, a call within a call. On that day, Jesus' thirst for souls took hold of her in a profound way. Over the course of the next few months, Jesus revealed to her his desire for her to radiate his love in souls.

Come be my light, he begged her. I cannot go alone.

The rest, we would say, is history. Mother Teresa established a religious community, the Missionaries of Charity, whose members dedicate their lives to the physical, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing of the poorest of the poor.

Mother Teresa's experience of a call within a call is not unique to her. In my ministry of spiritual direction, I have had the privilege of listening to many women and men describe such a call.

A widower who finds himself desiring to serve God as a priest; a married man with a family who discerns a growing desire to apply for the diaconate; a single woman with a thriving professional life and a happily married wife and motherboth of whom experience a longing to serve God and the Church as lay ecclesial ministers. These people are all examples of how God is working through our deepest desires.

A vocation is not a static, once-in-a-lifetime call that never changes. It dynamically unfolds throughout the course of our lives.

In his book Theology of Ministry, Dr. Edward Hahenberg brings clarity to the experience of these men and women by describing three levels of the vocation process. Each found expression in Mother Teresa's life, and each finds expression in our lives, as well: Who God calls me to be (the call to holiness and discipleship); How God calls me to live (the call to a state of life); and What God calls me to do (the call to serve).

All three are intertwined in the dynamic unfolding of our vocation. How do they find expression in your life?

Dr. Patricia Cooney-Hathaway

Dr. Patricia Cooney Hathaway is professor of spirituality and systematic theology at Sacred Heart Major Seminary.

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Sacred Heart Major Seminary is a Christ-centered Catholic community of faith and higher learning committed to forming leaders who will proclaim the good news of Christ to the people of our time. As a leading center of the New Evangelization, Sacred Heart serves the needs of the Archdiocese of Detroit and contributes to the mission of the universal Church.