Living My Catholic Vocation Today By Albert Doskey

As an eighteen-year-old single, young male attending university, my current vocation is the typical one for someone my age, a vocation to the single lay life. With that noted, this vocation, as St. Ignatius notes in his Principle and Foundation, is the salvation of my soul and, as Tom Monaghan notes, bringing as many souls as I can with me to Heaven. While these basic principles characterize every vocation, they nonetheless form the core of my particular vocation. With regard to the culture, its chaos needs little elaboration. A culture of death permeates the United States and in fact all Western nations. It manifests itself obviously with abortion on demand, subsidized suicide, and contraception pushed on youth. It manifests itself with a syncretism that permeates the US, even among Catholics, with disbelief in our Lord, the Holy Eucharist, and with Mass celebrated as if it were a fiesta instead of sacrifice. It manifests itself in all these ways, but it too manifests itself closely to me, close to my heart. It appears as immodest commercials and freely available pornography - a young man never needs any extra temptations of the flesh. It appears as the glorification of purely human solutions, that human systems can solve all the consequences of the Fall, that man by his own cleverness can completely eliminate poverty or prevent all crime - a student never needs any assistance toward pride. It appears as constant distraction and noise, promoting the idea that television shows, theme parks, nice cars, charming parties, newest best-sellers, or trendiest fashions can make one happy, can give rest to a restless heart - a youngster needs constant encouragement by society to pray, to show kindness, to do apostolic works; he does not need help in focusing on "me," my coolness, my status, my position, my fun, my enjoyment. It is not so much that men have become more evil but that they now call their evil good. In such turbulence, I can live my vocation only if I remain sure and steady. As any plane requires a clear flight path and a good captain to pass through great storms and turbulence to its final destination, so too do I. I require a plan, an ordering to my life, an ordering provided by the Divine Sacrifice; I require a captain, Jesus Christ, the best there is. Hence, I look at my plan, the Mass, and how it aids me in living my vocation. I focus on the Mass of St. Pius V, not because of any strong familiarity, but because of its beauty and insight into the life of the Trinity. One passage, by God's grace, orders my life. As the priest prepares to consume the Blessed Sacrament, he prays the Prayer for Sanctification: O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, Who, according to the will of Thy Father, with the cooperation of the Holy Ghost, hast by Thy death given life to the world: deliver me by this Thy most Sacred Body and Blood from all my iniquities and from every evil; make me always cleave to Thy commandments, and never suffer me to be separated from Thee, Who with the same God, the Father and the Holy Ghost, livest and reignest God, world without end. Amen. The prayer begins with an address to the Holy Trinity; it recognizes that I am in conversation with God, that my life is to be conversation with God, attentively listening to His word and responding when I ought. My life is not to be distracted as a misplaced conversation, a conversation with my neighbor or even myself, but rather the first conversation, that conversation with God. These introductory words ought to humble me as they speak to the Mystery of Who are the Trinity: O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, who, according to the will of Thy Father, with the cooperation of the Holy Ghost… It is a mystery which I cannot fully fathom. Immediately afterward, the prayer continues to place things in proper perspective. They speak of One Whose "death [has] given life to the world." He has saved me, I have not saved myself. He is my deliverer, and because I can do nothing without Him, I plead: "Deliver me by this Thy most sacred Body and Blood, from all my iniquities and from all evils." Not only do I plead, I am reminded that I am afflicted and that this is the state of the world, a state in which "evils" attack me, both from the outside and inside, "my iniquities." The prayer reminds me that affliction is second nature to man, that difficulties are normal, and that He alone can guide me through those difficulties. Afterward, the prayer teaches me how to accept His deliverance, to "cleave to thy commandments." By the grace of God, this is the way that my life ought to be sanctified, sanctified by an adherence to that which the Lord has instructed. Finally before recalling again the mystery of the Triune God, the prayer prioritizes my needs, asking the Son to permit only one thing: not money, not power, not pleasure, not even wisdom, but a state of grace: "suffer me never to be separated from thee." This beautiful prayer orders my life in numerous ways: First, it orders it by the love of the Son. The Scriptures say, "Ask and you shall receive," and so, as I petition that the Son will form my life by His generosity in accordance with His Father's will. Second, the Prayer for Sanctification orders my life by instruction. To acknowledge the mysteries of the Lord and my dependence upon Him, I learn, though not always consciously, of the way I am and the way He is. Third, the prayer orders my life by repetition. While the primary purpose of the Mass is not education but rather proper worship directed to the Father, this prayer does educate. The continued instruction described above slowly penetrates me who am slow and obstinate in regards to His grace. Fourth and finally, the prayer orders my life by reordering it. When I have strayed from the path which He has set - an all-too-often event - I am reminded of the corrections which need be made and the redemption our Lord, Jesus Christ, so willingly shares again and again. ALBERT DOSKEY, the oldest of four children, is a sophomore at the University of Texas, majoring in Mathematics, Spanish Literature, and Liberal Arts. He is active in the University Life Advocates and is vice chairman of Veritas, a campus group dedicated to the propagation and defense of the Faith. He attends and occasionally serves Mass with the St. Joseph Latin Mass Community. Albert participated in the Welch Summer Scholar program and his paper, "Study into the Electron Structure of C60" was published as part of the Compendium of Studies from that program.