This is the fourth article in our series on vocations.

Why in the world would we be asked to write about the vocation of marriage? In fact, we have only been married just over a year and a half. And what is meant by a “vocation of marriage” anyway? Well, although some would still consider us newlyweds – we have both been married before and have experienced the loss of our spouses. God then brought us together to begin a new journey as a couple. It is through our relationship with each other and those around us that we feel answer’s God’s call to living a committed life.

So we did some research to help with the technical definition of the vocation of marriage, and thought that sharing our story would provide some real-life insight on our interpretation of it.

"Let's go over to the other side!" -- Jesus

We, a few of your fellow community members, want to share with you the great experience of meeting Rob and Jessica, and their six beautiful children: Maria (11), Brittany (9), Sharon (5), Stacy (4), Rachel (2) and Robert Junior (6 months).  Some of us just spent a wonderful week with the family, in the first phase of our Epiphany Summer Rehab project, led by our new St. Vincent de Paul members. 

This project began in March with a phone call from Sister Shelly at the Sister Visitor Program.  She explained that Rob and Jessica had been struggling for some months to pay very high gas bills.  Their lives and finances were severely impacted when Rob, a tow truck operator, lost his lower right leg in a roofing accident several years ago.  It seemed like there might be more than we should do, beyond the usual pledge of financial assistance.  We agreed that our new St. Vincent de Paul group was ready to begin making home visits, so Bill Spath and Jim English went down to the home in the Portland neighborhood. 

This is the third part of our series on vocations. Joe and Linda Niehaus are celebrating their 45th anniversary this year.

So, they asked us to write an article on living marriage as a vocation. I guess we are supposed to know something about this subject after 45 years and counting. We realize we are still a work in progress because when we take the time to reflect on the past 45 years, it is very evident we are not the same couple we were back then.

At the beginning, our marriage was made up of the every day stuff of life; getting ahead in our jobs, paying bills, owning a house, children which came too many too fast. So being “called” would elicit the response; “I don’t have time for that”. But as we reflect on our past history, we become aware of several significant events that helped us see our marriage as a special “calling”. Maybe we are not comfortable with the word “vocation” because it took so many years for us to see our life together as Sacred.

This article is Part 2 in our series on Christian vocation

Greetings Everyone,
To begin our website article series on vocations I want to tell you more about what has led me to enter the seminary and prepare to live a life in fulfillment of what I have discerned to be my celibate vocation and calling to the diocesan priesthood.

My vocation discernment began back in early grade school at Saint Aloysius. At this time I was drawn to how central the priest was in so many people’s lives and how he was able to make use of that role to bring people closer to God. I also had early experiences with several priests with vastly different personalities which enabled me to begin to see God’s ability to take a wide range of different people, with various talents, and make them all effective ministers in God’s Church.