The Vatican’s upcoming synod on young people is a hopeful sign to me.
The meeting, called “Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment,” will address a general question that needs so much to be answered today. That question seems to me to be, “how can I find happiness and really become what God wants me to be?”
It is summed up in the synod’s preparatory document, which says,
“For each person, the vocation to love takes concrete form in everyday life through a series of choices, which find expression in the states of life (marriage, ordained ministry, consecrated life, etc.), professions, forms of social and civil commitment, lifestyle, the management of time and money, etc.”
Pope Francis is shepherding the youth with the synod on young people
To be honest, I’m not quite on board with this, if I understand it correctly. To widen the idea of vocation to that of professions and lifestyle seems a bit broad to me. One’s calling as either married, single, or a consecrated person seems more fundamental to me. First steps first.
The synod on young people will be held in Rome in October 2018. Pope Francis noted, as reported by the US Bishops:
“Its aim is to accompany the young on their existential journey to maturity so that, through a process of discernment, they discover their plan for life and realize it with joy, opening up to the encounter with God and with human beings, and actively participating in the edification of the Church and of society.”
For those of us working in the discernment of consecrated vocations, it means that we must step back and look at the wider picture of the vocational search on the part of young people. In other words, we tend to approach young people with the question, “Are you being called to religious or consecrated life?”
But that isn’t the first step. The first question is, which of the various vocations in life are we called to? And how does my life fit into the wider view of vocation mentioned above?
The synod on young people seems to be moving in the right direction.
My vocational struggle
My journey as a young person years ago was indeed perplexing. For me the question was of a career. Will it be counseling others? Or some kind of writing? I had very little experience in either, and the step into the unknown was very threatening.
I remember pondering anxiously for what seemed like such a perplexing question, “What will it be? This decision will be set in stone for the rest of my life. … Oh, no, whatever I choose, I’m stuck there … what if I won’t be happy? What if it isn’t me?”
I wish I had at the time something like the synod on young people.
Eventually I pursued advanced studies in journalism. I took one job after another, and things worked out in my current work as a promoter of religious vocations.
Those of us in vocational ministry are not responsible for taking youth through all these steps. We hope that the candidates we meet have already opened themselves up to the idea of a religious or consecrated vocation. But it helps for us to have a background in this, knowing where the young people are coming from.
I’m looking forward to a lot of good fruit coming from the synod, “Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment.” What about you?
