Vocation versus ambition

Yesterday the Catholic Church celebrates World Communication Sunday, at Holy Trinity it is also a Vocation Sunday Roadshow to promote and pray for vocations for the church. Fr William Goh rector general of the Major Seminary gave the sermon.

In his sermon he explains the words vocation and ambition. In a nut shell, we humans are always looking to fulfill our ambitions in life...once having fulfill one's ambition we set oursleves with another ambition to achieve and the cycle go and on....we feel great and happy but only for a short while in time and go about chasing another ambition...and we are constantly looking for that happiness as a result of achieving our ambtions but we are never quite there for a simple reason: Ambitions orginate from within ourselves, individualistic in nature and very secular; Vocations on the other hand takes on a higher form as it comes from God Himself and God calls us to various kinds vocations in our lives like the Religious, Homemaker, Educator, Social Worker or any forms of activity that is life giving in itself and to give it all in the process of carrying out the duties of the vocation being assigned by God. While each one of us has a job to earn our keep...let's turn our job into a vocation that has been assigned to us by God Himself; only then we will find true happiness in this very temporary life on earth..

Remember, a Vocation must be life giving, giving it all without asking anything in return...while an Ambition is motivated by money, status, power, self-satisfaction, size of office (perhaps) etc...
In our own personal lives, we are called to the Marriage Vocation and to fulfill the duties of Marrige Vocation which is full of challenges but nevertheless we press on and continuously persevere....and like wise in our job (careers) we must do the same...

So, I have decided to turn my job (an educator) into a vocation that God has entrusted in this life...I felt much better now and at peace with myself. Never mind if there is no career advancement, not much prospect..what the heck....it is now a vocation for me...not a job.

Have a nice Monday!
AlbertY