Before I was married, my vocation was to be single and to do that to the best of my abilities. My job was service adviser at a car dealer, well several dealerships. Then I got married. My vocation was to be a wife, to serve my husband and on the flip side, for my husband to serve me and in doing so for us to serve God together as one flesh. My job was still a service adviser. Then 3 years later, I got pregnant, my vocation was to be a wife and mother, my job was still to be a service adviser. So you see over the past 9 years my vocation has shifted, my job has since melted into my past but my vocation has gotten bigger and more occupying, being a mother is a vocation.
You can never turn off parenthood, at 1a.m. you are still a mother or father. Being a parent is a vocation, it is a lifetime dedication that never gets turned off, no vacations are given, no overtime paid and there is absolutely no sick time. Even if you are blessed with some time away from your children, they are always there, on your mind, in your heart. It is a vocation to be a mother, it is not a job, you serve your children, their needs are not annoyances, but as a mother, they are your main purposes.
My husband (another vocation) is a mechanic, or as we like to call them now, auto technician. When he goes to work, he punches in, he works hard all day, if he ever took a lunch, he would punch out, when he comes home he punches out, and no one expects him to be a mechanic after he leaves work unless he wants to or he sees an old man stranded on the street, then he would try to help. He is a mechanic, that is his job, but he never gets to take off the husband hat or the daddy hat. If one of his children need him at 2am he is getting out of bed and taking care of it, because it's a vocation.
Wife, mother, husband, father, single, priest, deacon, nun, sister or brother (both in religious life and in family life), daughter and son, are all vocations. Positions in life that never go away, that are always a part of who we are and how we function. I am a lay person in the church, I realize that the jobs of a priest are many, they are exhausting, taxing and at the end of the day probably lonely, I know it is a hard job, especially today, to be a priest, except, it's not a job; it's a position in life God has called you to, just like wife and mother are the life positions God has called me to. I know it is a hard vocation, but a priest is a priest every day of his life, all day long from sunrise to sunset and all the time in between, there is no day off, contrary to what some might think. It's unfortunate that some priests think they get days off, I don't understand the mentality behind that, because I, as a mother, don't get a day off and as a father, my husband doesn't get a day off, and God forbid either or us think we get a day off from marriage. In my estimation, it is shameful to think anyone gets a day off from their vocation.
Vocations are the hats we can't take off at the end of the work day. They define us as individuals. There is no retirement from a vocation, a nun is a nun for life, she is cloistered and in a monestary in a life that she has given her will over to. She can't just decide she wants to go to the mall, or I guess she could but then why would she have chosen a cloistered life, it was her choice, I can't see a nun rebelling from this life she has chosen for herself to glorify God with. She has given up those trips to the mall for a life of prayer behind a wall, for the betterment of our society. She chose to be a nun, it is her vocation, it is a hat, more then likely, she will never take off. Those beautiful sisters who teach and nurse and minister to the needy, they will remain sisters every day of their lives, tending to the poor and marginalized, this is the vocation they have chosen, that God has called them too, there is no day off for the sisters and their tireless work for the young, the old and the marginalized. The same goes for priests.
A time ago, sisters and priests would wear habits, so you would know who they are, now they wear what they want. It's very sad, their habits are gone and they are now in the crowd incognito. The incognito effect has allowed them a day off, they can do as they please. We don't want to over work them, we don't even know who they are anymore. Priests used to wear clericals, it is an honor to be a priest, these beautiful men who belong to our Holy Mother Church, should be identifiable in public, whether it is their scheduled day off or not. Clericals should be worn so we can pay them the respect that they deserve, and if they get spit at because there is such a hate for the church of Christ, well then I would refer them to the beatitudes, St.Matthew 5:11 Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for my sake: [12] Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets that were before you.
If nothing else is taken from this, I would simply like to say, a vocation is not a job. There is no days off, sick time or vacation. The time clock started the day you decided to be the person God has called you to be. There is no punch out, no retirement and the uniform is one to be worn daily. You'll get a day off when you have finished the race and you meet our Creator.
St.Paul to the Hebrews 7:1 For this Melchizedek was king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him: [2] To whom also Abraham divided the tithes of all: who first indeed by interpretation, is king of justice: and then also king of Salem, that is, king of peace: [3] Without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but likened unto the Son of God, continueth a priest for ever.
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