Vocation Essay

How do priests, deacons, and religious brothers and sisters help us to hear God’s call in our lives? First and above all, they devote their whole lives to spreading the word of God. You would probably get pretty good after a whole lifetime. What exactly does each individual one do?

Let’s start with a priest. A priest does a huge amount of things for the church. They say mass, which spreads the word of God. They can administer the sacraments, which brings a person’s soul closer to God. They can also do missionary work. Priests do a lot for the church.

Deacons are sort of like assistants to priests. The word “deacon” was probably derived from a Greek word meaning servant. They could help out during mass in reading or serving. They could also assist the priest in different ways during the mass.

Now for the religious brothers and sisters, they are sort of the employees of the church. They take vows of obedience, chastity, and poverty. They can’t own anything, get married, or say no to what the church tells them to do. They can be a lot of things. My religion teacher is a nun, and the principal of another school I know is a nun. The University of Notre Dame has a lot of jobs filled by religious brothers. Religious brothers and sisters spread the word of God by filling jobs and making them centered around God.

If you think about it, these three categories are sort of like a body. The priests are the head and heart. Without them, the church could not function. The deacons are the organs. They are a service to the head and heart and they do what the head and heart tell them to. The religious brothers and sisters are the arms and legs. They extend out to grab and pull more people toward Catholicism. So those three categories are sort of like a body, in a way.
In these three jobs, these people spread the word of God. The more we hear the word of God, and the closer we are to God, the easier it is to hear His call.

Frederick D. 8th Grade