This presentation and lesson plan is intended to be used to introduce the vocation week contest to students in grade 2 and 3. Please feel free to edit as you like. Catholic vocation is a complex and deeply spiritual topic. It has many facets and has the potential for years of study. When teaching catholic vocation to younger students we want to make sure it’s presented in a way they can understand, whilst also being true to the Catholic idea of vocation. So, it is best to begin by looking at the foundation of vocation; the call to Holiness. The catechism states that all are called to holiness and in order to reach this we, the faithful, must use the strength given to us by Christ, so that we can do the will of the Father in everything. It truly is living the two great commandments; Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind; and love your neighbor as yourself. It is from this initial call, this fundamental vocation, that all the other vocations stem from, and it is here that we should start with our students. From there we can look at the four specific ways we can live our call to Holiness; priesthood, religious life, married life and single life. These are states of life vocations. The Catholic church sees these four states of life as the way we can answer God’s call to holiness and live His will. Through the process of discernment we can find God’s will for our life. The presentation & lesson plan will look at the great commandments and how Jesus calls us to love. It will look at the four states of life vocations and the process of discernment. Students will be given the opportunity to express what they know about our vocation of Holiness; the four states of life vocations and how they can begin the process of discernment.

VOCATION A Call from God It’s like He’s Sending us on a Mission FOLLOW JESUS

VOCATION A vocation is different than a Job. When you choose a job, like a firefighter, police officer, or video game maker, you go to work, but when you come home, you stop doing that job and are just you. A vocation is who you are all the time, you don’t stop a vocation. It’s how you choose to serve God ALL the time, not just at work. It’s who God is calling you to be, not what God is calling you to do.

ALL ARE CALLED TO LOVE

Each of the people in the video choose a way to live in order to answer God’s call to Love. They decided that God was calling them into the vocations, a priest, a nun, to get married, so they could serve Him and serve His people. They discovered that was what God wanted them to do!

God is always calling us …. Discernment is recognizing His number! Discernment is how we hear God, how we can find out what He is calling us to do. There are some things we can do to help us Discern; hear God’s call. We can Pray We can think about the gifts God has given us, the things we are good at and see if we can use them to help those in need We can learn about the lives of Saints and see how they followed God’s call We can talk to others, our parents, a priest, a nun, a close friend about what they think God is calling us to do.