Vocation and Discernment 
Br. Dominic David Maichrowicz, OP

In the world, I was known as David Maichrowicz. I graduated from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo with a degree in Computer Engineering. I was a member and president of the Newman Catholic Center in San Luis Obispo and a founding member of the young adult group at the Old Mission Parish.

But when I first came to college, my faith wasn't a big deal to me. I went to Mass on Sunday but that was about it. At the time I was dating an evangelical protestant from back home and she was constantly pressuring me to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. A week or two into the first quarter, I went to a Newman Center Mass and after Mass there was some butcher paper on the wall: Sign Up For Bible Studies. I figured the bible study would make the girlfriend happy and so I signed up for Monday nights so I could get it over with at the beginning of the week. And sometimes it's those seemingly innocent choices that completely change your life.

The Monday night Bible Study leader knew Scripture like the back of his hand... and he was Catholic. Not only did he know Scripture but he could explain and defend all of Catholic Doctrine through Scripture. For the first time in my life I had Mary, the Eucharist, the Saints, the Papacy, Purgatory, you name it, all explained and defended. I began to realize the Church wasn't just some organization or tradition I was born into but was actually founded and maintained in Truth and reality. And of course I wasn't the only one, everyone else in the group was also discovering their faith for the first time which brought us into this deep community of faith and friendship that grew and flourished.

In the Order I am Br. Dominic David. I am a novice, that is a first year member of the Order of Preachers more commonly known as the Dominicans. I currently live at St. Dominic's Church in San Francisco, California. This discussion is about vocation in general, a little bit about my story, and the idea of discernment and how in the world it can possibly happen while you're a student or working in the word. This is not a talk specifically geared towards religious vocations (although I will attempt to ease certain concerns about that form of life). Discernment is for everyone in every stage and every form of life. God calls us all to life and relationship with Him.

Vocation

What is Vocation? A vocation is a calling from God from the Latin vocare: an invitation (which also means a court summons... vocation can feel like a little of both). I want to talk about vocation in two senses, the first we'll call vocation with a capitol V and the second, vocation with a lower case v.

Vocation with a capitol V is the Universal Call to Life in Christ. Vatican II tells us that, “...all the faithful, whatever their condition or state, are called by the Lord, each in his own way, to that perfect holiness whereby the Father Himself is perfect.” (Lumen Gentium, 11). Pope John Paul II in his Apostolic Exhortation on the Laity tells us that “the prime and fundamental [V]ocation that the Father assigns to each of [us] in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit [is] the vocation to holiness, that is, the perfection of charity.” (Christifideles Laici, 16a). This commandment to perfection, this call to holiness, to perfect love of God and neighbor is for everyone, married or single, religious or lay. It is the Greatest Commandment given to us by Christ. This Vocation is not merely an ideal, it is truly the reality of God's Kingdom. Christ lived it perfectly, Mary lived it perfectly, and the Saints lived it to heroic degrees.

Within this call to love is an inherent call to Evangelism. If you love God and you love your neighbor you will desire to bring your neighbor to God. Pope John Paul and Pope Benedict have put a heavy emphasis in the New Evangelization: bringing the good news to the people around us.

As the Universal “V”ocation is the same for all, the “v”ocation is particular to every individual. It is the particular state of life in which a person is called to live out their “V”ocation. This personal and particular calling manifests itself in all different levels of our lives. Some vocations are temporary while others are life long. If you have parents, you have a vocation as a son or daughter; if you have siblings you have a vocation as a sister or brother. There are vocations to teach and the vocation of a student. There are vocations to serve children, the elderly, and the poor, and to any number of ministries. Public service and leadership roles are vocations as is manual labor and all the important roles that often go unnoticed in the background. Of course, there are also the vocations that concern our state in life: married, single, priest, or religious.

What is most important to note is that every vocation is unique and there is no default vocation. While marriage is the most common call in this world, it is still a specific, direct, and unique call from God. It requires just as careful a discernment as a call to religious life if not more since it is a Sacrament and religious life is not.

Discernment

Discernment is the act of listening to God's call. I think the discernment process is as unique as the individual and the vocation. Everyone's discernment process is different so what ever you do don't judge your experience based on mine. I have to confess I was (and sometimes I still am) about as spiritually dense as they come. By that I don't mean that I had a high density of spirituality. I really didn't get it and I kind of forced God into this “two-by-four to the head” mode “calling”. It makes a great story but it isn't necessarily common and really wasn't very fun. So my story in some ways is about how you don't want it to happen.

The relationship with the evangelical protestant fell apart and by the middle of my second year through our bible study I started to realize that the right thing to do would be to say to God, “whatever you want for my life, I'll do; not my will but Your Will”. You have to be careful what you ask for. The next thing I knew, a different person everyday would tell me I should become a priest and the idea just kept popping up in my head and I couldn't get it out. This went on for two weeks strait. My response was less than positive. I panicked. I freaked out and even got angry with God. I had said, “whatever you want...” but this was not part of the deal. I even started to really scare some of my friends. They thought something was seriously wrong. One of them insisted we go out to lunch together and so I told her what was going on. Her response was, “That's it?!?” and she then proceeded to put things in perspective for me... and then it all stopped and I pushed it to the back of my mind with no intention of ever thinking about it again but it was too late. The seed had been planted and slowly the idea grew on me for about a year.

That next December a good friend gave me a 54 day Rosary Novena comprised of 27 days in petition and 27 days of thanksgiving. I began the novena asking for Wisdom knowing it would be the most intense prayer life I had ever undertaken. The last days in petition happened to fall on the Marian and Eucharistic Conference in Paso Robles, California. I really entered into a conversation with God that weekend telling Him all the ways in which He was crazy, I was the wrong guy, and He couldn't have meant me... and God through the priests that were telling their life stories kept saying “No, it is you... Yes, there's a lot we need to work on, but there was no mistake, I'm calling you.” And so God asked again if I would pursue His priesthood and I said, “Okay... if this is what You want we'll give it a shot.” I still had my reservations and I think all of them had to do with celibacy (which is discussed below)... but I was willing to go one step at a time. And I was completely willing for Him to change His mind.

Now you might think all of this was great: I had a strong sense of direction God wanted me to go but the reality is it wasn't what you would call good discernment. God doesn't like to be heavy handed, it's not a very freeing experience for us and He truly respects our freedom. What God prefers in discernment, I think, comes to us from St. Augustine and it was a favorite saying of John Paul II for young people. Augustine said, “Love God, and do what you will.” Now that sounds dangerous at first and it is. But what Augustine and John Paul are trying to tell us is that when you love someone you tend to start acting like them and you tend to start to like the same things they like. Thus, the more you love God, the deeper that relationship becomes (and were talking real relationship not mere feelings) the more in tune your will is to His. And then to the degree that you love God and your will is in tune with God's Will, what you want, what issues from the deepest desires of your heart, is what God wants. This is real freedom: the ability to do the right thing not because God said so or even just because it's right but because it answers the deepest desire of your heart. As we grow in love with God and, necessarily, in love with our neighbor, our vocation ought to become our life and our joy. A man truly in love with a woman who is also his best friend does not need someone to tell him to marry her: to not marry her he would almost have to deny who he is.

So the better form of discernment is not waiting for the burning bush. Scripture tells us Moses was 80 years old before that happened. The better way is about trying everyday to work on our virtues and become better people so we can get closer to God and conform our will to His, to make our heart one with His.