My Vocation: The Path to Glorification

I did not want the hidden life of a husband and father.

I confessed to a Dominican Friar my ardent desire to do more, to be more—
to have a noble purpose—to do and be something great.

After a lengthy pause, he uttered a phrase that like lightning and sword struck and pierced my soul:

“You will become a saint by means of your vocation—not outside of it.”

The prophetic utterance shook me.
I looked everywhere for importance, except the one place where I was important.

To do more. To be more. To have purpose and be something great…
These desires were about me.

I needed to be needed.
I wanted to be wanted.

Yet, I was needed.
I was important.
I did have a purpose.

Meditating on the good friar’s wisdom, I realized that my fatherly vocation is my path to sainthood.

But this vocational path appeared too insignificant.
While the world’s promises appeared to afford significance.

Yet, I began to realize that world could never promise peace.

Hesitantly, like dipping a toe in pond water, before jumping in, I began to test these ideas.
As I pondered obtaining the six promises, like St. Ignatius, I initially felt consolation, but afterward an empty sadness.
When I pondered sacrificing the six promises of the world, and embracing the path of fatherhood, I initially felt resistance, but afterwards experienced profound peace.

Sometime later, I read, “Man cannot fully find himself, except through a sincere gift of himself” (John Paul II).

Combining the idea that my vocation is my path to sainthood with the idea that I will only discover my identity by giving myself way, I realized that my identity and vocation are one.
Fatherhood was the context in which I would be a sincere gift to my wife and children…
And therefore, discover who I am.
My identity could lead me to my destiny.

I rejoiced, “My fatherly vocation is my path to sanctification.”

No longer would God, my wife, my children be obstacles to my initiatives.
They would be the means to obtaining the seventh and sought after P -the promise of peace.

A novel inspiration arrested my soul:
My identification as a father leads to my destination with God the Father, which is glorification in God the Son.

This is my path to glory and no other path will be given.