Oblate Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Offer your life in spiritual
and apostolic support
of diocesan priests.
Join us in praying for and
collaborating with priests
in their ministry.
Please contact:
SR. TERESINA ROSA, OSHJ
OBLATE SISTERS
OF THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS
50 WARNER ROAD
HUBBARD, OH 44425
Phone: 330.759.9329
E-mail:
VMTOBLATE@aol.com
been possible if my father had not
followed through on his vocation!).
staying open to God’s call is
not easy. Human beings like things
settled. But when you leave God in
charge, you find the best path for
yourselves because you discover
what God has already chosen for
you. if my father and i had not
remained open and trusting in God,
we might have missed our vocations,
one by stewing in regret, the other
consumed with fear. Both emotions
close—rather than open—you to
God’s inspiration and direction.
Holy ambiguity
www.oblatesistersofshj.com
Enter #196 at VocationMatch.com
What does God want for you?
When i came along talking about
experiencing a vocation to religious
life, my father realized
it was not him but his
son who had a call-
ing to priesthood and
he who had a calling
to marriage. He real-
ized that God chooses
whom God chooses
and it is a mystery why
God chooses some for one voca-
tion and some for another. “For my
thoughts are not your thoughts, nor
are your ways my ways, says the
Lord” (isaiah 55: 8).
That’s a good thing! otherwise
my father and i might have missed
our true vocations. The mystery is
only explained by appreciating that
God knows you better than you
know yourself. That is something
both my father and i have come to
understand. He eventu-
ally realized, with his
personality and gifts,
marriage really is the
best way he can flourish
in serving God’s plan for
him. And i came to real-
ize that my vocation as
a dominican priest and
preacher is the best way i can serve
God (of course that would not have
There is a
holiness to ambiguity
when God calls
you to hold things
in your heart until
they are clear.
“
tial vocation, i had run away from
mine. yet i was the one who ended
up the priest and he the one with 12
children, a 59-year marriage, and a
career as a salesman.
What helps, then, to stay open to
God’s call? i believe there is a
holiness to ambiguity when God calls you
to hold things in your heart until
they are clear. The Virgin Mary is the
model of this disposition of holy ambiguity, a holding of things in one’s
heart until more direction is given.
From the beginning of her story
you can see Mary demonstrating this
openness to God’s will when, not understanding everything the angel Gabriel was telling her, she nonetheless
said, in so many words: “i am the
Lord’s. Let it be done to me as God
thinks best.” That was her ongoing
attitude. she pondered each hint and
nudge of God’s will for her life in the
particular circumstances in which
they revealed themselves. What she
did not yet fully understand she held
in her heart, awaiting God’s further
guidance.
This disposition of holy ambiguity keeps you open to all the revelatory glimpses of God’s presence and
action in your life, without forcing
God’s hand or insisting God give
you the whole picture. it trusts and
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VISION 2013
