Your plan of life and your Christian vocation.

Each one of us begins to formulate our own plan of life – a plan which corresponds to the reality of the person which each one of is and which we draw up for ourselves. But in the presence of Christ we must ask what the relation is between our vocation and our plan of life.

First, human beings are creatures and, in Christ, adopted children of God. So we ask the question from our youth “What must I do?” of our parents and teachers, but we must also put it to God as our Creator and Father. This relationship with God we have learned above all in prayer. Young people, entering into themselves and at the same time entering into conversation with Christ in prayer, desire as it were to read the eternal thought which God has for them. In the context of asking God “What is your will for me?” my plan of life takes on the meaning of a vocation – something which is entrusted by God to an individual as a task. My life’s task is a gift to me, to my freedom from God and, at the same time, it is determined by the circumstances of my life.

Discovering and embracing the life vocation which God has given you is a great undertaking and it will lead to the discovery of our Christian vocation. It is not just priests and religious who have Christian vocations but anyone who is responding to the call of the Gospel with their lives. In fact, any baptised person who is trying to transform his or her life and the world by the power of the Gospel is already following a Christian vocation. We call this the universal vocation to holiness.

So in order to embrace your Christian vocation you must look at your life not just in terms of the plan which you are drawing up for yourself; you must look at it in the light of the Gospel. You must rethink the meaning of your Baptism and Confirmation, the sacraments in which is contained the fundamental deposit of the Christian life and vocation. It is these sacraments which begin the path towards the Eucharist – the Sacrament of Love. At the same time this path is lighted by the Sacrament of Penance, which is of irreplaceable importance for the formation of your Christian personality. If this is linked with Spiritual Direction then you are embarking upon a systematic school of the interior life.

The Church herself is like a sacrament because she is a sign of union with God. A Christian vocation is formed through the Sacraments of the Church – it is the Sacraments which enable us to open ourselves to the saving action of God and to participate in God’s life. In this way your ‘plan of life’ acquires a new dimension and you begin to live the life of grace in a concrete way.