I’m a cradle Catholic and was blessed with faithful parents and quality religious education throughout my childhood. I’ve always stayed true to the faith (by the grace of God!).
I’ve also always been encouraged to ask questions and learn more. At minimum I found answers that were sensical and satisfactory, but at best they were eye-opening, heart-expanding, prayer-inspiring experiences that pulled me forward on my spiritual journey.
When I was a high school senior I started dating my best friend, but I left my true “vocation” call open. I was acquainted enough with the vocation stories of priests who dated and went on to discover their true vocation.
Well I knew priesthood wasn’t in the books for me, but I did feel the call to mission work. I imagined myself in far off places being the hands and feet of God to others. In a community where my vocation was something other than cooking so that someone else with those gifts could do that and I would never have to deal with the kitchen 😹
My boyfriend/best friend and I dated despite being at rival colleges (The University of Texas for me, and Oklahoma University for him 🤘🏾). Long distance dating was not easy but it provided us with room to grow as individuals.
I graduated a year early and started working, and we continued to date. I knew that a proposal was probably coming and I needed to figure out how to handle it. I know that doesn’t sound very romantic but this is how I think!
I prayed at my weekly adoration hour to God to ask Him what He thought and what He wanted of me.
On my knees in that adoration chapel, God asked me:
What is the greatest vocation?
“I don’t know, the priesthood?” I guessed.
His reply: “Nope, try again. Who is the greatest human who wasn’t also fully God.”
That was easy — obviously Mary.
“Yep,” I heard. “And what was her vocation?”
Oh. She was a wife and a stay-at-home mom of one child.
“Exactly! And was she also a missionary?”
Yes, good point.
I never got a yes or no explicitly but that conversation and the clarity around it was enough to know that I could be a missionary AND have a vocation out of the home and I could also be a mother and a wife.
Praise be to God that He can take the desires (that He has often placed in our hearts) and fulfill them in ways we hadn’t even imagined.
I will never look at my life as a wife and a mother as something that simply happened. God intended for me to be where I am doing what I’m doing since before time began. That takes the day to day straight out of mundane and puts it squarely in the place of mission!