Vocation, grace and mission

Each of us is called by God to serve. Whatever that looks like in our own lives, each of us can choose God’s way today. We can say to the King of Kings, God Himself... ‘give grace that in thy service I may find perfect freedom’. In that prayer there is promise beyond measure, joy beyond dreams, hope that endures. By that prayer,... for every person, for all of us, we are opened to the transforming love of God.
~ From the Archbishop of Canterbury's sermon at the Coronation, 6th May 2023

This time last week I was on my sofa watching the Coronation, my viewing intermittently punctuated by WhatsApps and emails from sisters and friends also watching from faraway continents and time zones. The emphasis throughout was on service, in imitation of Jesus. As the Catholic Social Teaching lead for Caritas Westminster, I also especially noticed when the Archbishop twice referred in his sermon to 'love in action' - the name of our CST-based programme for parishes. Being love in action, stepping forward in generous, self-giving love, is what our faith fundamentally calls and missions us all to.

Reading the sermon later, I was also reminded of a zoom the previous week with several other religious, with whom I regularly interact via social media. As always, we began our discussions with a time of prayer, this time using Pope Francis' message for this year's Good Shepherd Sunday, which is also the World Day of Prayer for Vocations. It was so good to reflect on this year's theme of Vocation: Grace and Mission, in the company of a dozen or so others, coming from different - and distinct - calls and charisms, but all of us also with a common vocation to give ourselves in love.

The Pope's message emphasised that there is no vocation without mission, and that Our shared mission as Christians is to bear joyful witness wherever we find ourselves, through our actions and words, to the experience of being with Jesus and members of his community, which is the Church... And so, very simply and powerfully, we each shared our congregation's mission, and, within that, our own unique, personal call and mission. The first sister to share set the rhythm by declaring I am a Daughter of Charity and... and thus began a litany: I am a Benedictine... a Sister of Mercy... a Franciscan... a Carmelite... a Religious of the Sacred Heart and... 

And so we shared and received different aspects of the Benedictine life... preferring nothing to Christ... hospitality... Divine Office... community... We heard of Charity and of Mercy; two aspects of the same Love... of the personal mission of a Franciscan within that of his community, and a Carmelite aiming for friendship with Jesus... communal and personal calls and mission interweaving and adding depth and richness to each other. And the others heard from me; a few brief sentences which I can now expand...

I am a Religious of the Sacred Heart
(and this name, according to St Madeleine Sophie, is in itself a mission. We could spend our entire lives learning what it can truly mean to be 'of the Sacred Heart') 

and our mission - which is therefore my mission - is to discover and make known the love of God, whose source is in the Heart of Christ
(or, as our Constitutions say, 'In all the circumstances of our life, wherever our mission leads us, our sole purpose in living is to glorify the Heart of Jesus, to discover and make known His love.'

To discover... in our encounters, our prayer and reflection; in all places and situations, especially where Love might seem hardest to find... To make known... to radiate; to proclaim; through our love, our relationships and service, especially where Love most needs to be known) 

and my personal call and mission is to be a living proof of the unconditional and unlimited love I am so blessed to receive.

Yes, there is an immense grace and blessing in knowing - really knowing - what we were created for; what is our personal call and mission. But there is no roadmap to how, exactly, we can gain this realisation: it can come as a long, gradual dawning, or a sudden sunburst; in prayer, or in the midst of busyness; as clarity and insight, or an insistent whispering in our depths. It can be an awareness which has been with us since forever, or a coming home experienced in adulthood. But however it comes, or is experienced, it will remain and resurface, layering and interweaving, permeating our growth, our self-awareness and our prayer.

And with this knowing we too can pray ‘give grace that in thy service I may find perfect freedom’... and find in that prayer, and in giving ourselves in service and mission, promise beyond measure, joy beyond dreams, hope that endures, and the transformative power of Love.