Universality and Mission

My recent blog from the Catholic Studies blog:

During my experience here, especially in my classes, I am constantly struck by the universality of the Church. Three of the classes I am taking are with students from the Angelicum and there are students from all over the world. There are students from India, Africa, Poland, the United States, South America, Germany, and the list goes on! It’s so wonderful to see how the Church is so diverse in Her peoples, but immensely unified in Her Truth.

We are so diverse in our nationalities, but also in our vocations. While the majority of the students at the Angelicum are religious brothers, sisters, and priests, there are a number of laity as well. Some of them are married, some are single. Some have law backgrounds, and some interested in art. Even among the religious, their charisms and apostolates are varied. The thread that binds us and makes us whole is the Truth and love we find in Jesus Christ and the Church He founded. It is so inspiring to see the way the Lord calls each of us. He has a specific vocation for us all.
The first is holiness. He wants us to be a part of His mission in life, so He calls us to Himself, to imitate Him in our striving to be holy in order to gain eternal fellowship with Him in Heaven.

Our second call is to our specific vocation as either a call to religious life, marriage, or the single life. God asks us to draw closer to Him by giving ourselves more to others…taking the holiness we’ve drawn from Him and give it back to Him by giving Him our lives to make them fruitful. While these vocations are all so different, they compliment each other so well.

And I think I can say the third call is even more specific, to the vocation each of us have in the mission given to us in Jesus Christ. For some it may mean going off to proclaim His Truth in foreign missions, some of us to stay at home and proclaim Him to those at home. It may be through teaching, being a doctor, a counselor, an artist…whatever gifts we have been given we are to use for the greater glory of God!

This is the most exciting thing I see about my time here—seeing the universality of the Church and Christ’s specific calling in each of our lives. May we always seek to strive for holiness and listen to His very specific calling in each of our lives, to “Come to the Father” and allow Him to lead us completely.

God love you!