Today is Good Shepherd Sunday, otherwise known as Vocations Sunday, and so my feeds are filling up with images, articles and quotes about vocation, generosity and commitment (along with pictures from the US about Mothers' Day, which is also very, very much about vocation, generosity and commitment!). A lot of the quotes focus on the fulfilment and joy which comes from finding one's true vocation; or, conversely, finding that which makes us feel most alive and following that path.
And I am reminded of some words from Dorothy Day I came across several months ago: You will know your vocation by the joy that it brings you. You will know. You will know when it's right... Because the essence of what she is saying is: you will set out on a path; it will (at some point, not necessarily at the beginning) bring you untold joy; you will therefore know, just know, that this is your true vocation. But the joy, the blessed confirmatory joy of rightness and knowing, will only come after you have set out on the path...
Setting out therefore means taking a risk - just as moving to a new city, changing career, proposing marriage and a hundred and one other decisions and transitions also necessitate taking a risk. We can research and discern and consider, but in the end we take a risk, maybe step into the unknown, because at the time it feels like the right thing to do.
And this is at the heart of the Pope's message for this Sunday - The courage to take a risk for God's promise. And what is God's promise? Not that life will be easy or comfortable, or that every day will be filled with bliss and mystical visions - but instead, that every day will be filled with something far more precious: steadfast, infinite love, undying fidelity, the assurance - and reassurance - of God's constant presence, and a hundredfold far beyond all imagining. And in here lies joy; deep, quiet, ever-abiding.
That, at least, has been my experience, twenty-five years since I took the risk of entering religious life in the Society of the Sacred Heart. My prayer today is that many more people, especially those standing on a decision's edge, may have the courage to take that risk which leads to the fulfilment of God's promise in them...
Setting out therefore means taking a risk - just as moving to a new city, changing career, proposing marriage and a hundred and one other decisions and transitions also necessitate taking a risk. We can research and discern and consider, but in the end we take a risk, maybe step into the unknown, because at the time it feels like the right thing to do.
And this is at the heart of the Pope's message for this Sunday - The courage to take a risk for God's promise. And what is God's promise? Not that life will be easy or comfortable, or that every day will be filled with bliss and mystical visions - but instead, that every day will be filled with something far more precious: steadfast, infinite love, undying fidelity, the assurance - and reassurance - of God's constant presence, and a hundredfold far beyond all imagining. And in here lies joy; deep, quiet, ever-abiding.
That, at least, has been my experience, twenty-five years since I took the risk of entering religious life in the Society of the Sacred Heart. My prayer today is that many more people, especially those standing on a decision's edge, may have the courage to take that risk which leads to the fulfilment of God's promise in them...
Thank you for this. Taking that risk of a leap into the dark can feel daunting but in the end you have to. Holding back means you still have that niggle.
ReplyDeleteBlessings on your leap - and your landing!
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