The call to the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate is made in the context of the universal call to holiness through baptism. In a larger sense, that call is part of the creative love of God. To be created is to be called by God.Thus, at the core of each person is a call, or vocation. It is a call to holiness, to becoming a living response to God's love. Call is common to everyone, yet responding to God's love is unique to each person.
Ministry is not only for a chosen few but is mandated by the sacrament of baptism. Baptized christians participate in the life and mission of Jesus by attending to the needs of others. Every ministry involves service.The special vocation to the ordained clergy and the religious life can only be understood in this context.
What are these special vocations?
The Vocation To Religious Life.
The call of women and men to religious life is always marked by a desire to serve God and God's people, to care for the needy and to bring people to experience God's love. At the heart of the call to religious life is a desire to give oneself in love to God in a way so total that the pursuit of union with God becomes central in a person's life. This is expressed in living the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience in community.
Each of the vows is rooted in a desire to give self totally to God, to grow in intimacy with Jesus Christ and help people come to love God more fully. Each of the vows is a witness to all people of the primacy of God which is meant to mark the lives of everyone. Because they are about our relationship with God, the vows are always sustained by a life of prayer and by the sacraments. Prayer, both individually and as community, is a central element in the life of every religious.
Chastity
The vow of chastity or consecrated celibacy arises from a hunger to find a love so immense that it impels me to give my whole life in one fell swoop, trusting that the beloved has an infinite desire and capacity for my well-being and happiness. Celibacy expresses a desire to be unconditionally attached to Jesus Christ. A characteristic of consecrated celibacy is a desire to love more and more people, to see all God's children, especially the most needy, as the ones with a primary right to one's care and love. The lives of religious raise for people who meet them a question about the possibility of loving without measure, loving those who have no claim on them as family.
Poverty
The vow of poverty involves assuming a new relationship with things—one that reverences all things, and creation itself, as ultimately given by and belonging to God. Religious share material goods in common and depend on the religious congregation or community to provide what is needed. If you feel a desire to be detached from things, to find your treasure in God, you may be experiencing a call to religious life. Religious poverty witnesses to all people that we do not have an absolute right to accumulate things or to treat them as though they were not for the good of all. The vow of poverty is chosen to express dependence on and trust in God's care for us.
Obedience
Religious commit themselves to listen to God speaking through the constitutions and decisions of the community and through those members who are appointed as leaders of the community. God's call is also recognized as coming through the Church and sacred Scripture, the needs of the world and the mission of the community. Listening is always done in prayer and with respect for each person. The witness of obedience is that we are ultimately dependent on God and that a life of interdependence, as opposed to dependence or the illusion of absolute independence, is the way to holiness. Obedience is assumed to help the religious be honest in his or her search for God's will. If you feel a desire to base your important life decisions more and more completely in a context of God's call, you may be experiencing a call to religious life.
life of every religious.
Community
Our culture is more supportive of sexual gratification, consumerism and independence than it is of chastity, detachment from material goods and interdependence. Community life is needed to support one who attempts to live values not prevalent in the culture. At the same time, community life is a challenge. We all know that it is difficult to make room in our lives and in our immediate environment for the idiosyncrasies of others. Just think of family gatherings or the workplace and how easily we are annoyed by behaviors that we do not like. Community involves learning lessons of tolerance, self-sacrifice and reverence for persons who are different from us.
Community itself is one of the greatest witnesses that religious life has to offer in a culture where self- interest and individualism can lead to isolationism and even violence.
The Call to Priesthood
A vocation to the priesthood differs from a call to religious life. Some priests, however, are members of religious communities (Franciscans, Jesuits, Dominicans, Precious Blood Fathers, etc.), and so all of the above reflections on religious life apply to them.
Priests are ordained for ministry, which at its heart is a call to lead the members of the Churchto holiness by loving and serving the people of a parish or diocesan community. They have a unique call to lead parish communities by bringing them the sacraments and other means to holiness offered through the Church. It is especially through presiding at Eucharist that priests live at the center of the Church and offer members of the Church the most profound gift of God's grace and presence.
In addition to presiding at sacramental celebrations, priests have the responsibility of proclaiming the gospel in ways that inspire and challenge the members of the Church. If you have a love of Scripture and desire to lead the people of God in celebration of the sacraments, you may be called to the priesthood.
Just as Christ's role was to be a reconciler, bringing the broken back into a renewed relationship to God, so reconciling people to God and one another permeates the ministry of a priest. In order to bring healing and health to the Body of Christ, a priest lives close to the people, knowing their triumphs and failures, the pain and joy of the community. He stands with the members of the community at significant moments—when they are joined in marriage, bury their loved ones, in sickness.
It is in these moments that his special relationship to the Body of Christ is most visible. He is at one and the same time the presence of Christ for the community and the representative orvoice of the community in its celebrations. The priest knows the privilege and responsibility ofmodeling the holiness of God for the People of God.
The Call to Diaconate
Deacons are also ordained for ministry to the People of God. Those preparing for ordination to the priesthood are "transitional deacons". Others are ordained as "permanent deacons". Their ordination puts them in a new relationship to the Church community that requires them to serve the people by aiding them as they journey to union with God. However, their first responsibility is to their families and their second to the way in which they witness in their place of work, the marketplace.
The diaconate is primarily a ministry of service, especially to the poor. Deacons share some leadership roles in the worshiping assembly. At Eucharist, they serve at the altar and proclaim the Gospel. They can preach homilies, preside at weddings and at Baptisms. The call to be a deacon involves a love of the Word of God and a desire to serve.
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