Christian Vocation

"…all men and women are entrusted with the task of crafting their own life: in a certain sense, they are to make of it a work of art, a masterpiece."
Letter to Artists, 2

"It should be noted that in the period before the Second Vatican Council the concept of "vocation" was applied first of all to the priesthood and religious life, …. The Council has broadened this way of looking at things. Priestly and religious vocations have kept their particular character and their sacramental and charismatic importance in the life of the People of God. But at the same time the awareness renewed by the Second Vatican Council of the universal sharing of all the baptized in Christ's three-fold prophetic, priestly and kingly mission, (tria munera), as also the awareness of the universal vocation to holiness,(59) have led to a realization of the fact that every human life vocation, as a Christian vocation, corresponds to the evangelical call.... There are different ways of becoming imitators of Christ—not only by bearing witness to the eschatological Kingdom of truth and love, but also by striving to bring about the transformation of the whole of temporal reality according to the spirit of the Gospel.(60) It is at this point that there also begins the apostolate of the laity, which is inseparable from the very essence of the Christian vocation."
To the Youth of the World, 9