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When it comes to the vocation to marriage, Catholics sometimes lean towards one of two extremes. Some of us are drawn towards the secular, romantic concept of a “soulmate,” that there’s one person out there somewhere just for you. Others reject this in favor of the idea that, since marriage is a natural vocation, it doesn’t particularly matter who you choose (or who chooses you), so long as you’re both free to marry one another, and like each other sufficiently well. If the first one is the “soulmate” view, we might call the second one the “warm body” view. It’s decidedly less romantic. But are either of these views correct?
On the contrary, a richer understanding of the theology of vocations is important for approaching marriage (and priesthood and religious life) in a healthier way. The word “vocation” comes from the Latin vocare, “to call.” Every “vocation” is a calling from God. So in this sense, we can say that everyone has a vocation to become a saint, since we know that God “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4).
But God doesn’t just say, “go be a saint” in some generic and un-nuanced way. After all, there are as many different types of saints as there are saints. Rather, he has a plan for you specifically. As King David proclaims in Psalm, “Thy eyes beheld my unformed substance; in thy book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them” (Ps. 139:16). In the words of the Pontifical Work for Ecclesiastical Vocations, “holiness is the universal vocation of every man, it is the main road onto which converge all the little paths that are particular vocations.”
To be a saint is our universal calling. How we get there is the little path of “particular vocations.” That includes “vocation” in the way we often use that term (am I called to priesthood? marriage? religious life?), but it means something more specific yet. If you’re called to diocesan priesthood, for which diocese? If you’re called to religious life, for which community? If you’re called to marriage, to whom?
Continued below.
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On the contrary, a richer understanding of the theology of vocations is important for approaching marriage (and priesthood and religious life) in a healthier way. The word “vocation” comes from the Latin vocare, “to call.” Every “vocation” is a calling from God. So in this sense, we can say that everyone has a vocation to become a saint, since we know that God “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4).
But God doesn’t just say, “go be a saint” in some generic and un-nuanced way. After all, there are as many different types of saints as there are saints. Rather, he has a plan for you specifically. As King David proclaims in Psalm, “Thy eyes beheld my unformed substance; in thy book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them” (Ps. 139:16). In the words of the Pontifical Work for Ecclesiastical Vocations, “holiness is the universal vocation of every man, it is the main road onto which converge all the little paths that are particular vocations.”
To be a saint is our universal calling. How we get there is the little path of “particular vocations.” That includes “vocation” in the way we often use that term (am I called to priesthood? marriage? religious life?), but it means something more specific yet. If you’re called to diocesan priesthood, for which diocese? If you’re called to religious life, for which community? If you’re called to marriage, to whom?
Continued below.
You (Probably) Don't Have a Soulmate
The secular, romantic concept of a "soulmate" is foreign to Catholicism. Instead, we have the much richer concept of vocations. Read more here.
