Your head would probably nod in agreement if I asked whether we are suffering from a shortage of vocations in our Church.Yet my experience in working with thousands of Catholics through our workshops has lead me to a different conclusion:
our problem is not that we have a shortage of vocations, but that we are neglecting the abundance of vocations God has placed in our very midst.
The Holy Spirit is planting charisms and vocations of amazing diversity in the hearts of all his people. But although very real, like the graces of the sacraments, they are not magic. Just as parents must foster the innate gifts their children, so the Church must foster vocations. Our problem, therefore, is not that there is a shortage of vocations, but that we do not foster the vast majority of the vocations that God has given us. We lack the support systems and leadership needed to call forth the vocations of all in our communities. In the area of vocations, we are not asking for too much—we are settling for too little. God is not asking us to selectively nurture the priestly vocations of a few; he is asking us to call forth the apostolic vocations of millions.
The Church proposes that we offer the genuinely apostolic formation necessary to support all the laity in vocation discernment.The natural objection arises that the Church must focus on forming leaders for parish and diocesan service. After all, aren’t we in the middle of a vocation crisis? Indeed we are-but the real nature of our crisis is not that vocations are lacking. Rather, of the abundance given to his people,the problem is that of the many who are called, only a few are discerning.
The answer to our present shortage of priests, religious and other leaders is to systematically nurture the vocations of all. Formation is not just something we give to a few who are already clear about God’s call. Formation awakens Christians to God’s call and clarifies its meaning; formation empowers men and women to hear and respond to this already-present summons. As Pope John Paul II has written, “The fundamental objective of the formation of the lay faithful is an ever-clearer discovery of one’s vocation and the ever-greater willingness to live it so as to fulfill one’s mission”—The Vocation and Mission of the Lay Faithful (Christifideles Laicii, 58). Wherever lay men and women are personally challenged to follow Christ and given sustained, personal formation, we find that priestly, religious, and lay vocations of all kinds flourish.
Currently, the entire process of organized vocational discernment takes place outside the parish community and only for those interested in ordained or religious life. This isolation reinforces the belief of many Catholics that:
In reality, adults of all ages are searching for their purpose in life. At every Called & Gifted workshop, we ask participants, “Why did you decide to come?’ Here is but a sample of responses from one workshop:
Our workshops are filled with young adults sorting out their career options, women returning to the workplace after their children are grown, men whose lives have been disrupted by unemployment or divorce, and older adults facing uncertainty in their retirement. All over the country, hundreds of thousands of lay Catholics are seeking to discern God’s call at this very moment.
Vocational discernment requires the participation and support of the Christian community, but few lay Catholics will ever find such support unless it is available in their own parish. Many assume that the Church has no interest in their call and that they are on their own. Most are uncertain as to how to proceed. But when a parish starts fostering in its people the discerning of charisms, an exciting thing happens: people start discerning vocations.
A direct connection exists between the discernment of charisms and the discernment of vocation. Our charisms are both clues to the lifework for which God has created us, and supernatural tools with which to answer that call. I vividly recall one man who came to our program in order to discern whether he was called to the Dominican or Oratorian order. Religious orders are usually organized around the charisms and mission of their founder. Since I had thoroughly researched the lives of both St. Philip Neri, who founded the Oratorians, and St. Dominic, I was able to describe the charisms of the two orders in some detail. Comparing and contrasting his personal charisms with the charisms of these orders, he quickly clarified his choices.
Once we take seriously the Church’s teaching on the necessity of forming every Catholic for their apostolic mission, offering vocational discernment to a few on the side is no longer enough. Vocational discernment must be visible and easily accessible. We need to move initial vocational discernment out of the chancery and the monastery and into the parish. Discernment of personal charisms and vocation must become a completely normal part of life for a Catholic adult. Catholic adults, whatever their vocations, can and should experience the first stages of vocational discernment together. Nothing will communicate more clearly the Church’s recognition and support of the apostolic call of every member.