I guess it should come as no surprise. It has been eight years in the making.

Everyone seems to indicate that things are winding “up” for me. I’ll be getting an assignment as a priest soon. I will be ordained in two months. I will move into a new rectory and meet a new community. I will have a new title.

Yet it seems like things are winding “down”, too. Classes are ending, and I have so enjoyed studying these eight years at seminary. Classmates and friends are getting ordained and moving back home to Little Rock, Springfield, Indianapolis, and further. My ministry assignments are wrapping up, and I will say goodbye soon.

The way of life I have known since January 2009 is taking a big turn. In some ways, things are ending. In some ways, things are beginning. So it should come as no surprise when I write that I have been thinking a lot about vocations—what we are called to—in these waning/building days.

What is most surprising to me is that the more truly I see the priestly vocation, the more beautiful and full I see other vocations.

Maybe that is surprising. It shouldn’t be, though.

Without the example of a faithful spouse forgiving his wife (or her husband) time after time, what example does the celibate or consecrated man or woman have of God’s real covenant of love and forgiveness? Likewise, without the celibate priest, who would intercede on behalf of the family to God every day at Mass?

Surprising? Not really. But this might be.

Without the overwhelming majority of the faithful who work 8AM-5PM as teachers, artists, doctors, bankers, farmers (who often work more), housewives or stay at home dads (who often work even more still)… without you, how would what the priest does in the church reach the rest world? Most people will not come to church even once a month. How can they be reached?

Through your vocation.

You bump into customers, coworkers, waiters, and so many others every day—people who haven’t found the joy and love you have found in Christ and his Church. You are called to share it! If you are thinking of “getting more involved” in your faith, take a rain check on becoming a lector or pass on joining the choir, and invest that time in ordering your business practices to a Catholic ethic that treats all justly or to listening to a coworker’s story and sharing the power of prayer.

My time in seminary is winding down, and my time as a priest is about to wind up. Maybe it’s time your vocation wound “up” in the world, too.

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