With the arrival of June, we often think of weddings – that beautiful emotion-filled day when couples promise fidelity and love. It is the most common vocation in society.

Married couples will tell you that the “hype” of that day will become the down to earth reality of everyday life and struggles. Your challenge is to work to strengthen your love and commitment to your spouse as well as to your God who has called you to this vocation. When a couple prays together each day, making sure that God is part of their life together, only one in a thousand of such marriages break up. American studies show that where God is not part of their commitment, one in two break up before five years.

Praying together does not need to mean kneeling down or using formal prayers. It may mean talking over the day with God and your spouse as you lay together in bed at night – each telling God about the joys, the challenges and the difficulties you’ve experienced and ending the prayer with each of you asking that God bless the other and that He make the marriage strong.

A second vocation, though less common, is the single life where God’s plan for you is specifically to make the world a better place to live in. The list of the most famous “singles” of today and yesterday who have done this include writers, psychologists, politicians, painters, lawyers, singers, filmmakers actresses, fashion designers and scientists. However, being a genius, famous or a shaper of the world is neither a prerequisite nor a given outcome. More important is your contribution to the people around you, which you make by the way you live and the dedication you show in your profession, in your relationship with those whose lives you touch, your example and your outstretched helping hand in the community where you live. Again, not only your relationship with others, but also your personal relationship with God, will bring to your life and the lives of those around you, the peace and harmony we are meant to have.

For a few, God’s call will be to religious life as a monk, a sister, a priest, minister, rabbi or other religious leader. Each of these calls is sacred and according to God’s special plan for you. Each to realize its full potential requires a deepening relationship with God. In religious life it doesn’t mean just following the rule of the order and carrying out the demands made by this particular state of life, it means constant communion with your God, telling him your difficulties, asking for His help and when necessary His forgiveness, telling Him that you love Him and walking with Him through each day. It is specifically a God–centered life of service to others. Otherwise it is just a masquerade.

God has called you to a particular way of life. Your particular vocation is a way to union with Him for all eternity. No vocation is more elevated than another. Each has a special role to play in the plan for the whole of our world. While here on Earth, inviting God into your life means that you’ll never walk alone whether your days be bright or filled with storm clouds. If you haven’t already done so, invite God into your life now. He has a plan for you. God intends you and all of us to have a full abundant life. Do you? Are you truly living the life that God is calling you to?

Sister Andrea Dumont is a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph Roman Catholic religious order. She spent 14 years in Guatemala and since returning to Canada has lived in Grand Rapids, Easterville and Thompson. The main focus of her work in adult education, which includes training lay presiders for times when there is no priest available, organizing and instructing in the various ministries, sacramental preparation and RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults).