Quotes & Themes – Vocation
Vocation
God has many ways of calling His servants to Himself. (Letters to Persons in Religion, V, 8)
In the creation God commanded the plants to bring forth their fruits each one after its kind. (Introduction to the Devout Life, Part I, Chapter 3)
A good vocation is simply a firm and constant will which the called person has to serve God in the way and in the places to which Almighty God has called him. (Letters to Persons in Religion, V, 8)
How foolish are those who waste time and thought in desiring to be martyred in the Indies, but do not apply themselves to the duties of their state of life! (Spiritual Conferences, 7)
Walk ever in the way of your vocation with simplicity, more intent on doing than on desiring; that is the shortest road. (Spiritual Conferences, 9)
The love of our parents, friends and benefactors is in itself according to God, vet we may love them in excess; as also our vocations, be they ever so spiritual. (Treatise on the Love of God, Book 10, Chapter 4)
God Himself will uphold you with the same hand with which He placed you in this vocation. (Letters to Persons in Religion, III, 8)
Any devotion which is in opposition to, or not in conformity with, man’s true calling is not an authentic devotion. (The Spirit of St. François de Sales, XXI, 3)
Genuine devotion is consistent with every state of life. Like liquid poured into a container, it adapts itself to any shape. (The Spirit of St. François de Sales, XXI, 3)
Necessary employments, according to each one’s vocation, do not diminish Divine love, but increase it. (Treatise on the Love of God, Book 12, Chapter 5)
Let Martha be active without criticizing Mary, let Mary contemplate without despising Martha, for our Lord will always take the part of the one who is censured. (The Spirit of St. François de Sales, XXI, 9)
When charity draws some to poverty and withdraws others from it, when she directs some to marriage and others to continence, when she shuts one up in a cloister and makes another quit it, she is not bound to give an account thereof to anyone. (Treatise on the Love of God, Book 8, Chapter 6)
We must consider that there is no vocation which has not its irksomenesses, its bitternesses, and disgusts. (Letters to Persons in the World, II, 4)
God makes the lame and the blind to come to His banquet, to show us that two eyes and two legs are not needed for going to Paradise. (Letters to Persons in Religion, V, 8)
In order to have signs of a good vocation, it is not necessary to possess visible constancy, but it must reign effectively in the higher will. (Spiritual Conferences, 17)
Make a virtue of necessity. (Introduction to the Devout Life, Part III, Chapter 16)
If a person shows a firm and persevering determination to serve God in the manner and place to which His divine Majesty calls her, she gives the best proof we can have that she has a true vocation. (Spiritual Conferences, 17) Neither widowhood nor virginity has any place in heaven but that which is assigned to them by humility. (In III 40)
While one is busying oneself to seek out what very often is not one’s vocation, one omits what would render us perfect in that which we have embraced. (Letters to Persons in Religion, V, 8)
We must love what God loves; now He loves our vocation. (Letters to Persons in the World, II, 4)
North American Salesian Network
The North American Salesian Network (NASN) is an organization of both lay and religious groups that live the Salesian teachings of St. Francis de Sales and St. Jane de Chantal. NASN facilitates the sharing of Salesian resources, educational services, vocational efforts, and a variety of resources, bringing this optimistic, joy-filled spirituality to people throughout the world.