On The Journey Toward Claiming my Vocation

I am always a bit shocked when I hear people say that they knew for certain they were going to be priests or doctors or flight attendants from age seven or so. At that age I was totally wrapped up in getting a new bike or building another snow fort. I remember when I graduated from university and my parents asked me what I was going to do with my life now that I was grown and educated, I had nothing to say except "I think I would like to travel for a year and see where I end up." This was not what my parents wanted to hear! Eventually I stumbled into a L'Arche community and have been here for the past thirty years, which I suppose qualifies as a vocation.
Vocation is more than our work or profession. The word vocation comes from Latin words meaning "summons" or "call." It seems to me that whether we knew our call from a young age or simply found it by living along day to day, we will finally be able to recognize and claim our vocation only when our life is over and we look back on what we have lived. We might be surprised by both what our vocation finally is and how we lived it.
When people ask me what I do, I tell them I am a member of a L'Arche community and my role is to announce to society the values we are living out. But I don't think that is my vocation. My call is first to be a child of God, second to be my parents' son, third to be my wife's husband, fourth to be my children's father, fifth to be a faithful member of my community and then to do my job as a spokesperson for my community. It is important for me not to confuse that order!

by Joe Vorstermans