By virtue of our baptism, as members of the community of faith, we all share a common vocation to live a life that expresses the love of God made flesh in Jesus Christ. 

A vocation is not a single event.  It is a gradual unfolding of our journey in faith during which God invites us to find our distinctive style of loving. 

Our responsibility is to discern the Spirit’s movements in our heart which lead us to discover how we can best serve God and God’s people; how we can cooperate with God’s love and God’s life within us most generously and most authentically.

What God wants for us, and from us, is to live the Gospel in our daily life; to serve God’s people with generosity and compassion.  It is something within us that we can discover by understanding ourselves, our life’s experience, and most especially our experience of God. 

As we trace the thread of God’s presence in our life, we can begin to notice the direction that our life should take if it is to be faithful to this personal experience of God that is unique to each of us.

The Religious of Jesus and Mary believe that “In every vocation the initiative comes from God.  He calls us to a personal encounter and asks for a unique response: a life-long commitment to follow Christ more closely.”  (Constitutions 51)

Whatever form our vocation takes, it only makes sense if it emerges from our personal, on-going relationship with God.  Discovering our vocation means finding the most authentic, faithful and honest way of living that relationship, of honoring the truth of God in us.

Sr. Janet Stolba, RJM
Director of Vocation Promotion