Vocation is a calling. When we think of vocation- a priest or nun comes to mind as having the "calling". That is correct, that is a vocation, but there is more to it than that. It is an invitation to love and serve God in a particular way.
There can be the vocation into the religious life - priest, sister, bother, deacon.
There can be the vocation to the married life - wife or husband. That can also lead to being a parent or not.
There can be the vocation to live a single life - man or woman - no particular reason for some and for others it may be that they have a same sex attraction and they choose to follow the Catholic teaching of not acting upon that temptation.
Society and the media outlets have been desensitized us to premarital sex and homosexuality for years. We can turn on our TV and find shows that have these things on many channels at all times of the day.
In the last 100+ years we have lived the machine revolution, sexual revolution and technology revolution. Why does this matter you are thinking - right?
Well - in the late 1800's into the early 1900's we were introduced to machinery to help with the labors of the land. Instead of using animals for the farming - tractors and other machinery was introduced into our food production - mainly. Now machines are doing the work of many people, reducing jobs and giving people more free time - which can bring about better family time or it can lead to finding other things to fill the time - "me time" and take away from the family.
Before the machine revolution men would come home (in) from the fields and spend time with the family. They would pray more with the family. There was the role model of the family setting. Family life was important.
Now on to the sexual revolution - started late 50's (in my opinion) on through the 60's. It started with the birth control pill. When the birth control pill was introduced- that in turn introduced sexual promiscuity. It started with premarital sex, which don't get me wrong, there probably was always premarital sex. It gave the opportunity to experiment and not have to worry about getting someone pregnant or getting pregnant. Which in turn led to sexually transmitted diseases, other disease and cancers. Again, we see sexual promiscuity on all TV shows, movies and even family shows - which in turn takes away from the true family setting and meaning. Children and youth are groomed to accept same sex relationships, divorce and premarital sex as being the norm. This is where the true family values and core is breaking down.
Now we are in the technology revolution - technology is in our everyday life. It can be a very good thing and used improperly can be a very bad thing. If you just watch a movie that is 20 years old you can see how quickly technology has changed. Even 5-10 years ago we can see how cell phones have advanced to being a computer in our pocket and having access to the internet via wifi or data. We live in a time of instant gratification. We can look something up quickly, it becomes a part of our gatherings with family and friends. An example of this was yesterday - we were having lunch at our daughters house and sent the children out on a scavenger hunt. One of the things on the "list" was to find a birds nest and show us. We all looked up and saw leafy nests above our heads as it is spring and the trees are still bare. I said I spotted 3 nests and my #1, daughter, said that they were squirrel nests. So of course we jumped on our phones to see if they were squirrel or bird nests. She was right.
Technology can be fun. There are great things to find and use for our faith as well - but then we have the bad that comes in to play. There are pop ups, gambling, pornography, and sexual predators on social media sights. These can lead to terrible addictions and danger.
It is important for us to teach our children and youth how to use technology safely and to always feel that they can talk to us about anything that they find uncomfortable with media and technology. We need to make rules about when children and youth can have access to these things at home - that it may not be allowed during family meals for example. AND ESPECIALLY CAN NOT BE USED WHEN DRIVING
Technology can help the family teach good values and it can also tear down the family with addiction and acting on temptations.
We need to get back to talking about VOCATION ~ so how does all of this tie into vocation?
Family values that we see and live with are what lead us to our vocations. We need to stand up for what we believe in and teach our children and youth these values so that they can choose to have a good Catholic vocation in life.
