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How Does God Call?

 

Personally

 

God acts differently in the life of each person. He adapts Himself to us. There are as many vocation stories as there are people called to religious life. 

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Some feel called at the age of ten, others at thirty. Some are excited about the call while others resist it strongly – and for a long time. Some are called to contemplative life, others to apostolic communities.

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Many are called to work in their own countries, while some are invited to be missionaries in faraway lands.

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What they all have in common, however, is a personal loving look of Jesus that gently invites them to respond to His plan for them.

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Through Ordinary Means

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God speaks through ordinary means such as a homily, a question of a friend, a book or film, an example of a saint or an inspiration of a priest.

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We do not hear words spoken or see angels flying and announcing God’s will for us.  Rather, a person called experiences a desire to know God more intimately, be with Him, and serve God and His people.

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Gently

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God never forces His call upon us. Scripture tells us a story of a young man whom Jesus invited to walk with Him (Mk 10:17).

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The young man was not willing to leave his possessions so he went away sad. Jesus did not try to convince him to stay.

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This is one of the saddest Scripture passages. The young man had his focus set in a wrong direction. Instead of looking at what he would gain by following Jesus, the Eternal Reward, he looked at what he would lose, mere possessions that would one day be lost anyway.