Reflection from ND Vision Conference on Vocation

Visioning Vocation: The Art of Self-giving love

*Guest reflection thanks to vocation.nd.edu

Author: Mr. Tony Oleck

When it comes to discernment, I have often found myself waiting on my burning bush or pillar of fire. Part of me expected the Lord to speak to me in some defining way in an extraordinary moment of prayer. I have been waiting for the day and the hour in which I would suddenly know what I was meant to do for the rest of my life.

Working at Notre Dame Vision this summer, however, has radically transformed the way I imagine vocation and the way I see discernment. ND Vision is a program that seeks to help high school students recognize the gifts, passions and desires that God has given them, and how they can use them to discover God’s call in their lives and respond to that call with faith and courage. Students spend one week on Notre Dame’s campus listening to dynamic keynote speakers from all across the country and looking in-depth at the question of vocation in unique small group activities with mentors (like myself) from Notre Dame, St. Mary’s College and Holy Cross College.

The topics and themes explored at ND Vision have helped me to understand vocation and discernment in a whole new light. For example, what do we mean when we use the word “vocation”? One helpful definition of vocation that I have come to grasp through Vision is “the art of self-giving love.” Vocation can in part be understood as the way in which our lives become artworks of God’s love for the world. But what is self-giving love, exactly?

The self-giving love that the Christian is called to can be seen in the doctrine of the Trinity. The Holy Trinity teaches us so much about love and about vocation because it shows us that God truly is Love. The three persons of the Trinity teach us that God is relational, that His essence is complete self-giving Love. The Son perfectly loves the Father and the Father perfectly loves the Son, and from this love life is issued forth in the person of the Holy Spirit. Thus the three are one, yet distinct.

The mystery of the Trinity, though it is a mystery, teaches us a very fundamental truth about reality and the Christian's place in it. That is that God is Love, and the logic of the entire universe is Love. Thus as I discern my vocation, one of the primary questions I have learned I must ask myself is this: How is God calling me to participate in the Love of the Trinity? How can my life be a window into this self-sacrificial, life-giving Love?

While this is a question I am still asking myself as I continue formation in Holy Cross, learning how to ask the question and how to answer it has been one of the greatest gifts that the ND Vision community has given me this summer. One lesson I have quickly been learning is that God does not primarily speak in heavy storms or crushing rocks, in earthquakes or burning bushes, but rather the Lord speaks to the heart. The Lord whispers in the silence of our hearts, in our gifts, our passions, our desires. These desires must be fine-tuned, or rightly ordered, to virtue and to God’s will, but holy desires, gifts and passions can help us to discover this will and respond to it in love.

This is the beauty of the Communion of Saints! Stepping into the ND Vision community was like stepping into a giant stained-glass window. Each piece’s color is a little different. They vary in size. Some are more jagged, some more smooth. None are perfect on their own. Yet each piece is necessary and fits together with the others to offer a beautiful image for the light of Christ to shine through. This light pierces every shard of glass and creates a masterpiece of God’s love.

Discerning my vocation in the midst of these men and women has been incredible. It has been like trying to find my place in the stained-glass window. It has been such an inspiration to see the way that God is already using the gifts and personalities of the people I have been so blessed to spend my summer with. Seeing this has pushed me to look at my own gifts and personality, and to ask how I can best use them to glorify God and make His love known to the world. For me, this summer has been about learning to find my place in the Communion of Saints.

Mr. Tony Oleck is entering his third year at Old College Undergraduate Seminary on the campus of Notre Dame. He and his fellow Old Collegians write posts for the Spes Unica Blog, sharing on their life and formation in Old College. Learn more about seminary life in Holy Cross, and specifically Old College Undergraduate Seminary. And meet the current Old Collegians who are in formation for priesthood and religious life in Holy Cross.