' culture of vocation'

Greetings!

I thought I'd put a post up about the joys of my new vocation as a married woman! How smug am I?! It's interesting though itsn't it... is marriage my vocation? Or is my vocation something else which is expressed and lived out through marriage?! Doesn't In Verbo Tuo say something about your vocation being like a dream written on God's heart - how cool is that? But, come to think of it, how did I ever realise that marriage was what I was being called to? o you think that people know they are 'called'? Sometimes I'm not sure.

I was at a conference for teenagers in the States and the Bishop there asked young people who felt called to the priesthood or religious life (no mention of marriage - boo!) to stand up while the rest of us prayed for them - there were hundereds! It was incredible and I wondered why I wasn't confident that the same would happen here. I found myself thinking that they were not extraordinary young people, they were just young people lucky enough to have found people (parents, family, friends, catechists, youth ministers) who had helped them along the journey to realising they are 'called'. Surely it can only be that basis that provides the fertile ground that grows specific vocations like marriage or priesthood?

Are we wasting our time agonising over a shortage of priests when the real question we ought to be addressing is how we enable all people to reflect on their own story, how God is present in it and who he is calling them to be?