Skip to main content

What Are Your Vocation Options?

The readings for this homily: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/011426.cfm

Father Chris Alar, MIC, reflects on the heart of the discernment of every vocation: learning to listen to God. Vocation is not just about priesthood or religious life — it is the unique call God has placed in your life. Marriage, single life, priesthood, religious life — each is holy, each is purposeful, and each is a path to sanctity when lived in prayer and trust.

God speaks more often than we realize: through Scripture, the teachings of the Church, the Liturgy, the neighbors He places in our lives, and some of the quiet movements of our hearts. But to hear Him, we must create space for silence. Prayer is not only talking to God; it is letting God speak.

Father Chris reminds us that God does not waste a single moment. Even seasons that feel uncertain, temporary, or difficult are part of His providential plan. What matters is the courage to say yes, even when the path involves sacrifice. Fruitfulness — not comfort — is the measure of a life lived for Christ.

Every vocation requires trust. Every vocation includes a cross. But every vocation, faithfully lived, becomes a powerful witness of God’s mercy, truth, and love in the world.

Are we listening when God calls?

Added to Favorites!
Added to Watch Later!

You might also like...

Performing works of mercy here on earth is essential to our eternal happiness but sometimes we make the excuses of not having the time, talent or resources to perform such works. But, Jesus told St. Faustina “for the many souls who are often worried because they do not have the material means with which to carry out and act of mercy. Yet spiritual mercy, which requires neither permissions nor storehouses, is much more meritorious and is within the grasp of of every soul.” In this episode, Fr. Chris Alar, MIC, discusses the spiritual works of mercy and how we can best accomplish them.
Satan's attack is based on two things: Bringing down the Church and the family. It is critical, especially today, to know and understand how to defend our families from these attacks. Fr. Chris Alar explains what the family is, how to know each person's role, and then leads you in a consecration of your family. There are many consecrations out there today (to the Holy Spirit, to Mary, to Joseph, etc.) but this is the one that brings it all together.
In Revelation 12, Scripture presents a woman “clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars” (Rev 12:1). As Fr. Chris explains, this image points unmistakably to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Her heavenly glory reveals the one chosen by God to bear Christ, the King who “is to rule all the nations” (Rev 12:5). Yet confusion arises when the passage speaks of her crying out in pain. These are not physical labor pains from the birth of Jesus.