Vocation

by Maria Calderon
a prewriting for the major assignment

Throughout the book, we see different encounters that Merton has with the importance of vocation, whether it is his own, or someone else’s vocation, that inspire him to do better for himself. The event that really caught my attention, which I wrote my response 5 on, was on the beginning of part three of the book, when Merton explores the different types of priest he can be. This made me think of the situation I currently encountered in my own job. Then after really thinking about the different experiences Merton had in his life, I thought about the different people he encountered, like Doctor Bramachari, and the Baroness. These were people who dedicated their lives to God and spreading the word of Christ to others. Each one did their work in different ways and achieved their position through different means. Doctor Bramachari is a monk who came from India to America, without money and in 5 years he earned a Doctorate in Philosophy. He often gave lectures in schools and churches and other places, wearing sneakers and a white robe, getting the attention of everyone because of the way he looks.
The Baroness on the other hand was a Russian who had escaped from Russia, had lost her family, and lived through all the horrible events that took place in her country. She was brought up Roman Catholic, and after all of the negative experiences she had, her faith only grew and she decided to share this with the people in Harlem, after ending up in New York. She lived a life of poverty with the other people in Harlem while spreading the word of God, dedicating her life not to her own benefit, but for that of others.

These two people show what vocation is, and Merton, after seeing that the Trappist vocation was the correct one, realized that vocation is not only about what makes one happy and allows one to have an easy and comfortable life, but that which makes one happy through sacrifice and selflessness. The comfort that comes from having the right vocation is knowing that you are doing something for yourself that comes from struggle and hard work, that also helps others. Again, when Merton was choosing his vocation he looked for the wrong benefits, he went through the types of Catholic priests and found aspects of the vocation that he did not like for immature reasons. He only looked for what would benefit his person. In finding what was right for him, he not only overlooked that he would not be sacrificing anything for other people, but most importantly, for God. Besides my own job experience, being in college helps us decide what our vocations will be. At first, I was a theology major and I made the decision to change that major because of the lack of job opportunities in the field. I decided to study criminal justice because it was interesting and law is my strength. Now that I am done with the major, needing only a few more classes, I realized I can get killed or assaulted or I might have to kill someone myself in my job. All of this would not be for my own benefit, but of course I don’t want any of those things to happen and I question what I have been doing with my time these past three years. It reminds me of Merton trying to figure out what type of priest he wanted to be and I see how important vocation is in life.