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 PhoenixI invite you to rejoice with me in Christ. I have been a seminarian in the Diocese of Phoenix for two years, and they have been the best two years of my life. The formation I have received at the Nazareth House has helped me grow closer to the Lord, embrace my identity as a beloved son of God, and receive the abundant blessings he has for me. The Lord called me into seminary, and he has guided my steps throughout the formation process. And now, the Lord is inviting me to place my trust in him again, and pursue the vocation he has prepared for me.
The Lord has revealed his will for my life, and is leading me out of seminary and into discernment of the vocation of marriage. Seminary has done its job perfectly: it provided a place for me to discern with clarity and confidence the Lord’s will for my life, and prepared me to be a witness of God’s love. It is an incredible grace to know my vocation with absolute certainty. This is the best possible outcome because it is the Lord’s will, and not my own.
Thank you to everyone for your prayers and support during my time in seminary. It was a reassuring grace to know that at every step of my discernment, I had my parish family interceding for me every day. Please continue to pray for me as I continue to strive for holiness, and be assured of my prayers for you all as well. Our prayers for holy vocations do not go unheard.
Lastly, a few words to the young men present today. Seminary is the ultimate place to discern your vocation. If you have felt even the slightest tug to discern the priesthood, take it to prayer. Seminary helps to form men into holy fathers, in either marriage or priesthood. Don’t be afraid to do something radical for Christ; he won’t disappoint.
Once again, I invite you all to rejoice with me in Christ. His perfect will fills our hearts with peace, and moves us to love. God bless!
In Christ,
Zach Zazick
+Ad Jesum per Mariam+
To hear more about Zach's discernment, listen to his podcast with Anthony Scroggins, his fellow seminarian and long time friend, and Fr. Paul Sullivan, vocations director for the Diocese of Phoenix.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/67UiEsrWAMDtX0mNm63Vle?si=cb8b27f2ce3a4f24
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.
