A few posts back, I shared one of my favorite video clips from a series on vocations which was put together at the 2012 ByzanTEEN rally held in San Diego. Our most recent clip that we’ve released is also one of my favorite parts in this twelve-part series. It’s based on the common question which we asked our interviewees; namely, we asked them about the favorite aspects of their their vocations to the monastic or priestly life. It was such a great series of answers, because they all speak of the greatness of answering a call to serve God.
One of the other reasons why this post is my other favorite of the twelve clips that we put together is that our interviewees span many stages of life and yet give answers which blend together in a wonderful harmony. From a seminarian discerning the priesthood, to a sister who was then awaiting the status of rasophore nun (since filming, Jessie has become a rasophore and is now known as Sister Gabriella at Christ the Bridegroom Monastery) who are both comparatively new and early in living out their vocations, or from a Bishop or a nun who has been living out her vocation for almost 50 years, with several priests interspersed between, you can see the common thread of God calling His people to give themselves to Him and to the entire world. I thank God for their responses to this one call, and hope and pray that their testimony and self-offering will foster new vocations and strengthen our own hearts to answer likewise. Whether called to be a priest or a monastic or not, we all have a vocation. Through the prayers of the Theotokos, may we love that vocation and live it day after day!
Prayer of Saint Ephrem 