June is a significant month at St James’s Church, Paddington. Father William, our assistant curate since last July, will be ordained priest at St. Andrew’s Holborn on 29th June, the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul. It’s a momentous occasion for him and for our parish.

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Father William has spent many years discerning his calling - speaking with God, reflecting inwardly, and engaging in conversation with friends, family, and the Church. The central question: is this sense of calling genuine? Is it truly from God? It’s a process I myself went through many years ago.

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It all comes down to one word: vocation - from the Latin vocare, meaning to call. Unfortunately, the word has come to be associated too narrowly with clerical life. But vocation is far broader and richer than that.

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Our first calling is simply this: to be.
God calls us into existence through His Word.
And it is deeply personal: God has called you.

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“I have called you by name: you are mine.”

 

In a world that often questions the very meaning of human existence, this is truly Good News. We are here not by accident, not as the result of random causes and effects, but because we were meant to be.

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Our second calling is to relationship with God - both now and forever. This is what we often call salvation. We come from God and are on a journey back to Him. But this journey includes living fully and abundantly in the present.

 

And then, we are each called to something. Each of us is called to holiness.

If God is love, and we are made in God’s image, then we are called to live lives of love - imitating Jesus, who came not to be served, but to serve.

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Beyond that, we are each called to a particular path - a specific vocation. This is the sense in which most people understand the term: a vocation to priesthood, religious life, or another dedicated way of serving. But it’s essential to understand that every person is created for a unique purpose, entrusted with a task no one else can fulfil.

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St John Henry Newman, the former Anglican scholar and later Roman Catholic cardinal, expressed this beautifully in a well-known prayer:
 

God has created me to do Him some definite service.
He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another.
I have my mission. I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next.
I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons.
He has not created me for naught.
I shall do good; I shall do His work. I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it—if I do but keep His commandments.
Therefore, I will trust Him. Whatever I am, I can never be thrown away.
If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him; in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him; in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him.
He does nothing in vain.
He knows what He is about.
He may take away my friends, throw me among strangers, make me feel desolate, hide my future from me - still,
He knows what He is about.