On May 1, 2024, I celebrated my 20th anniversary of ordination to the Diaconate. It seems important to share some autobiographical details in the hopes that others might find insight into their vocational journey.
As I look back on my vocational journey, I realize that it began with my baptism, and it was thanks to the family that God gave me — that close circle that nurtured me and loved me — and that extended community of the church within whose company I’ve spent all my life’s journey.
Like Jesus, our sense of calling— discerning the meaning of our own lives — begins with who we are, where we are, and when we are.
Think back to the experiences of learning and work that have shaped who and what you are. Childhood experiences, youth and young adulthood have all shaped the contours of our lives. Discernment is listening to God in all of life. For example, my summer work over five years as a hospital admitting clerk helped me to feel comfortable in hospitals. Looking back on the connections I made with people when on emergency shifts and general admitting I felt God’s presence. Taking patients to the floors after admitting them and settling them into their rooms was about service. Little did I know then what these experiences were preparing me for. My work as a teacher-librarian was also about service. Helping students and colleagues find information and reading material.
Many more life experiences led me to discerning a call to the Diaconate. For some time that call was tucked away in my heart until circumstances in my life, through God’s grace, revealed the time was right.
Yet not only events, routines, our life history, and experiences, mentors, and friends, prepare us for what God intends for us, but also what one is called to create from within. Through prayer, listening to God and through a relationship with God in and through Jesus. One’s spiritual core will not take root unless one is planted in God’s presence. We need to be in the tenderness of God. We need to be fed, watered, and tended by the generous Life Force that is at the heart of all things. Only then can we leaf out, to become what we have been given to be. Discernment is a gift that we have all been given. Through prayer, may our eyes be opened so we can see the gift and look to people and practices that will encourage us to pursue our call, whatever that call may be. For me, it was the Diaconate. Wait, watch, and listen. God supports us in our search and is at the same time present in us.
Take time to feel God’s
Holy Presence.
Take time to
cultivate your call.
