Vocation” comes from the Latin vocare (to call) and means the work a man is called to by God.

There are all different kinds of voices calling you to all different kinds of work, and the problem is to find out which is the voice of God rather than of society, say, or the superego, or self-interest.

The kind of work God usually calls you to is the kind of work (a) that you need to do and (b) that the world needs to have done. If you find your work rewarding, you have presumably met requirement (a), but if your work does not benefit others, the chances are you have missed requirement (b).

On the other hand, if your work does benefit others, you have probably met requirement (b), but if most of the time you are unhappy with it, the chances are you have not only bypassed (a) but probably aren’t helping your customers much either.

Neither the hair shirt nor the soft berth will do. The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s hunger meet.

Vocation is a process by which a seed needs to be nurtured to maturity. Training to be a leader in the Church requires following the seminary programme of discipline, being loyal to Church teaching and loving the Holy Father. It means listening to the voice of the Lord, discerning His call and making daily sacrifices as one goes along in this path of formation that is human, spiritual and intellectual.

Vocation is the process of making one's way toward something. It is a direction more than a goal. Following a peak experience, one of the conspirators, a housewife who later became a filmmaker, said, "I felt as if I'd been called to serve on somebody's plan for mankind." The conspirators typically say they feel as if they are cooperating with events rather than controlling them or suffering them, much as an aikido master augments his strength by aligning himself with existing forces, even those in opposition.

A true vocation calls us out beyond ourselves; breaks our heart in the process and then humbles, simplifies and enlightens us about the hidden, core nature of the work that enticed us in the first place.

Ambition left to itself, like the identity of the average billionaire, always becomes tedious, its only object the creation of larger and larger empires of control; but a true vocation calls us out beyond ourselves, breaks our heart in the process and then humbles, simplifies and enlightens us about the hidden, core nature of the work that enticed us in the first place. We find that, all along, we had what we needed from the beginning and that in the end we have returned to its essence, an essence we could not understand until we had experienced the actual heartbreak of the journey.

Ambition left to itself, like a Rupert Murdoch, always becomes tedious, its only object the creation of larger and larger empires of control; but a true vocation calls us out beyond ourselves; breaks our heart in the process and then humbles, simplifies and enlightens us about the hidden, core nature of the work that enticed us in the first place. We find that all along, we had what we needed from the beginning and that in the end we have returned to its essence, an essence we could not understand until we had undertaken the journey.

My vocation is who I am and it is not just what I do at times. I think I understand much better now that I am a priest forever. This is a tremendous grace which gives me much consolation every day, but it is the daily challenge to me to be who I have been called to be in every way.

The story of my vocation is very simple. Maybe every priestly vocation comes out of an apparently trivial reason, but then grows and clarifies in the seminary. A vocation is a bit like the starter mechanism of a car, the spark that starts the engine.

While vocation is a call from God, it can be responded to only in an environment where God has a place. Good family life which is built on the love of the parents for one another and for the children, good Catholic Education and a strong sense of responsibility for the Church may be some of the reasons why young men continue to consider the priesthood as a possible choice of life.

Then, overcome by joy, I cried, 'Jesus, my love. At last I have found my vocation. My vocation is love. In the heart of the Church, my mother, I will be love, and then I will be all things.

There is no vocation without its trials and difficulties, but a vocation is nevertheless God's choice of how he wants us to serve him in this life. And God doesn't make mistakes. He gives us the grace of perseverance provided we are sufficiently humble to accept the help proffered.

The human vocation is to realize that which constitutes man's raison d’être: a projection of God and, therefore, a bridge between earth and Heaven; or a point of view that allows God to see Himself starting from an other-than-Himself, even though this other, in the final analysis, can only be Himself, for God is known only through God.

Cordelia: I hope I've got a vocation.

Charles: I don't know what that means.

Cordelia: It means you can be a nun. If you haven't a vocation it's no good however much you want to be; and if you have a vocation, you can't get away from it, however much you hate it.

Pope Francis [...], invited us to face the struggle of searching within ourselves and, at the same time, not to forget God’s presence in our life. We can thus recognize a vocation when we place our deep desires in dialogue with the work that God’s grace does inside of us; thanks to this dialogue, the night of doubts and questions gradually lightens and the Lord allows us to understand which path to take.