What Is Your Vocation?
The word vocation is derived from the Latin word vocare, “to call,” which means a vocation is a calling. Everyone has a vocation to holiness, a universal call to holiness, which Christ gives to us in the Gospel (John 13:34): I give you a new commandment: love one another.
As Christians, we realize this call according to different states of life. Some will build up the Mystical Body of Christ through a life of prayer as single people. Others will be called to sanctity through the life of marriage and family. Others will discern a vocation to consecrated religious life as a brother or a sister. The Church will call some men to become her priests and deacons.
Learning about Vocations
There are many helpful resources available to assist with discernment and formation. Here are just a few:
- Marriage information here on the St. Anne website.
- Vocations page on the USCCB website
- Diocese of Phoenix Vocations Page
- Third Order Lay Carmelites - What is a Carmelite?
Prayer to Know My Vocation
Heavenly Father, I believe that you have created me for a special mission. From the moment I began to live in my mother’s womb, you have been preparing my path to Heaven. Lord, show me your will for my life. Help me to trust you, no matter the cost. Help me to believe that I will be happiest doing your will. Give me the grace to say yes to what you ask of me today so that I can say yes to my vocation. I make this prayer through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Meet your brothers and sisters in discernment
Here in the Diocese of Phoenix, there are several men and women who need our prayers during their discernment process. There are also groups like the Sarra Club of East Valley who dedicate themselves to praying for priests, seminarians, and vocations to the religious life. Take a moment to read the biographies and information of some of our very own St. Anne men and women that would like you to keep them in prayer on their journey.
To financially support vocations click HERE.
Priesthood
Click here to meet seminarians from the Diocese of Phoenix!
Zachary M. Zazick
Seminarian of the Roman Catholic Diocese of PhoenixZach Zazick will be attending the Diocese of Phoenix Nazareth House Seminary to continue his discernment towards the vocation of Priesthood. He will spend his first two years at the Nazareth house here in Phoenix while growing in his spirituality and in fraternity with other men of the diocese.
To support our St. Anne seminarian financially you can direct financial gifts using his Zelle account.
CLICK HERE to use Zelle to zzazick@dphx.org
For more information about the Nazareth House Seminary click here: Nazareth House
Diaconate
Religious Life
Jessica Reyes
+ JMJ
To God be all the glory for this testimony. May He be praised for all He has done to guide me in His most precious will!
I would not have been able to do what He was asking without the help of His holy priests at St. Anne: Fr. Sergio, Fr. Dan and Fr. David. Neither would I have been able without my family and friends, specially my mom Gina, my sister Stephanie, my friend Mary Schultz and her wonderful family, and many other beautiful souls, which I am forever indebted to.
There is also deep gratitude in my heart for Mater Ecclesiae Fund for Vocations for their gracious contribution in making my vocation possible as well. I encourage anyone who is able to donate to this heavenly cause for all those aspirants to the consecrated life who are unable to continue because of college loans.
Vocation Story:
My Faith Journey
Ever since I was little I had the desire to change the world. As I grew, the world convinced me that the only way to do that was to change myself.
My mom and I moved to the United States from Mexico when I was ten years old. From then until my last year in college I suffered a lot, trying to change myself into not being “the foreign girl”. I thought I needed to be everything “American” to do what I desired. My biggest mistake was trading the Catholic faith I had been born into for ambition of fame and money. I now was a proud fool, thinking I was on my way to bliss and happiness with my selfishness. I desperately wanted to get there regardless of the means.
Blessed be the great mercy of God that called me out of this foolish grasping for empty promises.
I was 23 years old when my disappointment in the ways of the world had brought me to the lowest point of my life. In this sadness I felt a small pleading to find what I had forsaken: my faith. God waited so patiently for that moment when I would turn back to Him, begging for His forgiveness.
Through it all, God has shown me that He never left me, although I had left Him. I was the prodigal daughter and He was always waiting at the door for my return. I’ll never understand the love He has for us humans, especially me. For only by His grace alone, was it that I began to seek a relationship with Him. I wanted to know Him, as I read much of what His friends, the saints, had to say of Him. It’s been a journey full of adventure and stillness; joys and sorrows; lows and highs; new beginnings and needed ends.
As a good Father, He gave more than I could have ever imagined. He showed me my vocation.
My Vocation
My vocation is to serve Him with my prayers for the world to change for the better. More than ever I want this to be so, but how wonderful it is to know that it is only possible by asking God. He is the only one with authority and power to make it happen, therefore He deserves all the honor and fame. As I enter the Poor Clare Monastery in Santa Barbara, California, by the merits of Christ Jesus who gave His life for sinners like me on the cross, I will strive to become the servant I was called to be. Then if so God wishes, may my prayers along with the prayers of His faithful enkindle and renew the face of the earth with the fire of the Holy Spirit. May our blessed Mother intercede with us, and may she obtain for me to forever imitate her.
St. Anne, pray for us.
