Events/News

During National Vocations Awareness week, SR JENNY SEAL fdnsc, coordinator of the South Australian Vocations Network (SAVN), invites us to reflect upon the vocation to which we are called.

As a Faith and Spirituality formator, I was recently invited to facilitate a couple of reflection days I was drawn to name The Call of the Heart. These days were an opportunity to reflect upon God’s call within our lives, whatever our vocational calling or life stage. From the youngest of children to the oldest members of our community, we are all called by God every day and every moment of our lives.

By taking time and space in Listening and Hearing the Call of the Heart as we did on the reflection day, we can become aware anew of God’s calling in the here-and-now as baptised individuals, whether it's within marriage, parenthood, consecrated life, permanent diaconate, or priesthood. However, the calling or vocation of the child and their mission in their current stage of life is often not named as such and can be overlooked.

It is often heard that children are the future of our Church. However, the reality is that children are an integral part of the Church in the present moment just as they are within their family in the here-and-now, and likewise within any team in which they may belong. As the body of Christ, we are all united, each playing a unique and significant role, whether visible or hidden, known or unknown, and where one cannot do without the other.

Thus, the ability to listen and hear God’s call in life with a discerning heart and mind begins in childhood and evolves as we grow. As we use the gifts of the Spirit to discern the way to respond through Living the Call of the Heart – the second component of our reflection day, the cycle then moves through to the third component of Sharing the Call of the Heart. Here, the fruits of the Spirit can become evident in one’s own life and in the lives of others particularly as one lives their vocational call.

Therefore, during this National Vocation Awareness Week, let us take the opportunity to pray particularly for the important vocation and ministry of parenthood as a prime school of communion – a term which Pope Francis often uses. It is here within the church of the household, the domestic church, where Jesus can be welcomed into the life of the family as he walks alongside them and breaks open the word of their daily lives – just as Jesus did with the disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35). Is this not the reflective life-space that is needed to live any vocation or call each day?

Therefore, as the wider and local parish church community, let us together engage with and support the church of the household as parents are enabled to listen to th word of God through their children’s lives and through the experiences within their household. Let us pray to be inspired as we find creative ways together to remove ‘millstones’ encountered and pastorally support families to navigate challenges on their Emmaus journey; and with Jesus, share in and be transformed through the breaking of the bread of their daily lives.

As with Pope Francis, we recognise the Church as a ‘family of families, constantly enriched by the lives of all those domestic churches’ (Amoris Laetitia, para 87). Therefore, let us support the significance of the church of the household where parents can fulfil their crucial vocational role in helping their children to listen and hear, to respond and live, and to share the call of their heart to love, within their own context of home, school, parish and wider community, both in their present-day situation and that of their ongoing and future vocational call.

As we intentionally strive to build a truly human, collaborative and synodal faith community within the Body of Christ, let us pray for, reflect upon and creatively support and nurture the vocational calling and mission of each person – whatever their vocational call and at whatever stage of their journey. Let us be aggrieved and unsettled if any part of the Body of Christ feels less than supported or nurtured in their call and mission, whatever that may be. Thus, during this National Vocation Awareness Week, let us ask the question of ourselves and of another, what do you need to be supported as you live, deepen and nurture your vocational call?

As we support, nurture and honour the vocation of all within our present-day Church – that of the child, the single, the married, the parent, the religious, the deacon and the priest, we tangibly recognise that every person is needed within our incarnational Church as the Body needs all its parts and limbs (1 Cor 12:12-27).

Is this not where our present-day synodality needs to lead us again today as we walk the Emmaus journey together ‘to live more intensely our ecclesial communion, in which the diversity of charisms, vocations, and ministries are harmoniously integrated, animated by the same baptism’ (Pope Francis, May 25 2022).

Thus together, acknowledging our frailties but with confidence in a God who loves us and journeys with us personally and collectively, we can bring forth a collaborative and energising Church which gives life and wellbeing to all. To this end, we listen and hear, respond and live, and share the heart of Jesus’ message, I have come that you may have life and have it abundantly (John 10:10) both within our own situation and yes, to the ends of the earth, through our various calls and mission.