reed

• Vocation


  Meaning "to call" (from Latin "Vocare")
• Christian vocation


  • An invitation from God to an individual to become part of His eternal plan to save humanity, world or history
  • A response a person makes to himself to answer God's call for partnership
• Characteristics of Christian vocation

  • It rids us of a competitive outlook in life
  • It frees us from anxieties of life
  • It rejoices over our talents or giftedness
  • It frees ourselves from coping expectations of others
  • It gives us gracious balance of time and energy
  • It frees us from the tyranny of time
  • It follows the contours of history and of human development
• Man as the Being Called


  • Person is open and relational by nature
  • Persons are conscious beings
  • Persons are embodied spirits
  • Persons are historical realities
  • Persons are unique yet fundamentally equal
• The Means of the Call

  • God calls us through Creation
  • God calls us through History
  • God calls us through People/Community/Church
  • God calls us through Jesus Christ
• The Call


  • Existential: Fulfillment in the existential level can be experienced in this material world, is REAL, but it is TEMPORARY
  • Eschatological: Fulfillment in the eschatological level is viewed in the metaphysical level wherein it focuses on the idea of LIFE HEREAFTER or ETERNAL LIFE (man's unification with God in eternity)
• What Jesus invited the believer to

  • Transform one's life
  • Believe the Good News
  • Serve the Christian Community
• Metanoia


  Self-transformation, total change of lifestyle
• Jesus is the Good News. He is the Gospel.
• All are called to one mission: to remain in humble submission to God's will to love and serve one-another.
• Consequences of having man & woman as 2 modes of imaging God

  • God gives Man & Woman equal personal dignity, inalienable rights & responsibilities proper to the person
  • Man & Woman are different but complementary physically, biologically, morally & spiritually
  • Man & Woman are called to be partners, mutual gifts to each other, a communion of 2 persons
  • Sexuality is a call to open oneself as a gift to Love
• Different states in life

  • Conjugal union for a married person
  • Consecrated celibacy chosen freely for the sake of the kingdom
  • Christian youths before choosing marriage or celibacy
  • Single blessedness chosen by lay faithful
• Each person is a unique reflection of God
• Each male & each female is immensely valuable as creature of God
• Complementarity & not compatibility is the basis for friendship and intimacy
• Everything in the person is Good: physical, biological, psychological & spiritual
• Having a sexual organ is Good
• What is material is Good
• Our body is not only good but also holy
• Every human must possess a certain degree of mastery in knowing the constitution and function of his body in order to respond harmoniously in a community of humans
• Sexuality is for LOVE
• Love is both a Gift & Command
• Loved is received & Love is given
• We all are products of Love
• Love is expressed in different states of life: conjugal union of a married person, consecrated celibacy and in Blessed single life
• Based on natural law, each human being is born with a gender male or female
• We relate with others according to our gender we receive from nature
• Man & Woman are equal in dignity but not in capacity
• There are tasks a man can do but a woman cannot; some tasks a woman can do but a man cannot
• Man & woman must inform each other and work together to complement each other in these responsibilities
• Sexuality is a mutual gift of self
• Fidelity & commitment are great demands for our relationships with one another
• Each person should be shaped by this pattern of loyalty & commitment to make a better world and family
• For every union between a man & a woman, it must be for love & procreation
• God wills for man to live forever so that He designed man to be capable to procreate
• Two aspects of Sexual union: Unitive & Procreative
• Single life


  Way of life followed by those who do not marry or who do not commit themselves to the priesthood or religious life
• Mt. 19: 11-12: '"He said, not everyone can accept this teaching, only those to whom it is given to do so. Some men are incapable of sexual activity from birth; some have been deliberately made so; and some there are those who have freely renounced sex for the sake of the God's reign. Let him accept this teaching those who can."'
• 1 Cor. 7: 32: '"The unmarried man is busy with the Lord's affairs, concerned with what is pleasing to the Lord..."'
• Forms of single life


  • Playboy bachelor
  • Aging spinster
  • College student discerning to marry or enter religious life
  • Woman with four children whose father suddenly died