Sometimes, as I go around the diocese talking about the four vocations to which everyone is called (marriage, the generous single life, consecrated/religious life, priesthood), a well-meaning person will stop me after Mass and say something like, “Father, I hear what you are saying, but I have always felt that I had a vocation to be a nurse. From the time that I was little, I knew that God wanted me to do this. Isn’t that my vocation?” Yes. And no. It might be your vocation. But it is not your Vocation.
The Four Primary Vocations
A vocation is a calling by the Lord. The word comes from the Latin word vocare, meaning “to call.” He calls everyone to one of four primary vocations. We might call these “Vocations” with a capital V. And absolutely every person is called to one of these four primary vocations: marriage, the generous single life, the religious or consecrated life, or the priesthood. EVERYONE. Our primary vocation is the fundamental path through which we are called to love, to sacrifice, and to become holy.
A Call Within a Call
But some people also have a special calling from the Lord, a call within a call, as it were. Mother Teresa of Calcutta used to talk about this quite often. She was called to the vocation of religious life, and she joined the community of the Sisters of Loreto in 1928. But 18 years later, the Lord called her to something more, a specific calling within her calling: to serve the poorest of the poor for Jesus.
She founded the Missionaries of Charity, continuing to live out her primary vocation of religious life, but in a way that was oriented toward a secondary vocation of caring for the poor. This is what a secondary calling, or an “inner vocation,” is: a specific way to live out one’s primary vocation. It is a call from the Lord to love and to serve, but in a way that harmonizes with and enhances one’s primary vocation.
Such an authentic call from the Lord strengthens one’s commitment to one’s primary vocation, never detracting from it. It constitutes a particular way for a person to live and love inside that primary vocation.
How an Inner Vocation Works in Daily Life
Some people have such a divine call to a particular type of work. For example, everyone has known a teacher who seems to have been born to teach. The Lord has given some special souls this vocational call, and they thrive while leading a classroom. If the Lord calls them to this profession, they please Him by cooperating with His grace to do that work.
Their teaching must always complement their primary vocation, whichever of the four it might be. They are called first to married life, or the generous single life, or the religious life, or the priesthood, and second, in accord with the responsibilities and duties of their vocation, they are called to be generous in teaching. There are many other professions to which the Lord often calls people to an inner vocation, including those in the medical field, emergency services, advocacy, and the military.
Serving the Church and the Community
Some people receive a secondary call to ecclesiastical service. Deacons are ordained to assist the bishop in his ministry in a diocese. Third-order and lay associates join themselves to the charisms of religious communities. Men and women in every parish are drawn to liturgical and church service as lectors, cantors, catechists, sacristans, and all sorts of ministry leaders and volunteers.
The Lord asks many people to participate in the work of the Church through all sorts of calls to ministerial service. Some people are given a vocation-within-a-vocation to volunteer at the community level. There are many in all four primary vocations who have a deep love for a particular mission or group of people, so that they regularly donate time and money to provide assistance or support.
You better believe that they have a calling to do this! The Lord never leaves His people to fend for themselves; when people are in need, the Lord calls individuals to give of themselves to meet those needs. Not everyone may heed His call, but He definitely asks certain people to participate in His work in unique ways to accomplish His designs on the world.
If you think that you might have a vocation within your vocation, bring it to prayer. Talk to the Lord about it; He might be asking you to give of yourself in a very particular way. It should never take precedence over your primary vocation, but it certainly can enhance and complement it.
I myself do not have a secondary vocation—diocesan priesthood is sufficient for me! But praise God that He calls some souls to a vocation within their vocation, because the world and the Church depend on it!
By Father Jeffrey Ellis