book 9 | chapter 1 | worksheet 7

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Learning from the Personal

Vocations of Others
The Church provides us with many examples of the faithful who have reflected on and
responded to their personal vocation to a life of loving service to God and others. This
worksheet invites you to discover the insights of St. John Paul II, Dorothy Day, Fr. Pedro
Arrupe, SJ, Jean Donovan and Thomas Merton on the connection between love for others
and ones personal vocation. You will then have the opportunity to apply that wisdom to
your own search for your personal vocation.

READ, REFLECT AND RESPOND

AA Read and reflect on the five quotations.
AA What insight does each give you into how you might discern your personal vocation?
AA Record your insights on the lines provided or in your journal.
John Paul II (19202005), saint and pope
It is not wrong to want to live better; what is wrong is a style of life which is
presumed to be better when it is directed towards having rather than being, and
which wants to have more, not in order to be more but in order to spend life in
enjoyment as an end in itself.

Dorothy Day (18971980), Servant of God, Lay Oblate of St. Benedict, founder of
The Catholic Work movement
The sense of futility is one of the greatest evils of the day. . . . People say, What can
one person do? What is the sense of our small effort? They cannot see that we can
only lay one brick at a time, take one step at a time; we can be responsible only for
the one action of the present moment. But we can beg for an increase of love in our
hearts that will vitalize and transform all our individual actions, and know that God
will take them and multiply them, as Jesus multiplied the loaves and fishes.

book 9 | chapter 1 | worksheet 7 (contd.)

Pedro Arrupe, SJ (190791), priest, Superior General of the Society of Jesus

What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything. It
will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you will do with your
evenings, how you spend your weekends, what you read, whom you know, what
breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude.

Jean Donovan (195380), martyr and lay missioner

Several times I have decided to leave El Salvador. I almost could except for the
children, the poor bruised victims of this insanity. Who would care for them? Whose
heart would be so staunch as to favor the reasonable thing in a sea of their tears and
helplessness? Not mine, dear friend, not mine.

Thomas Merton (191568), American Trappist monk, contemplative and

spiritual writer
All the good that you will do will come not from you but from the fact that you have
allowed yourself to be used by Gods love. Think of this more and gradually you will
be free from the need to prove yourself and you can be more open to the power that
will work through you without your knowing it.

JOURNAL EXERCISE
AA Write out the nugget of wisdom from the quotes that resonates most with your life
right now.
AA What does that say to you about the vocation to which God might be calling you?