It’s been a while since I’ve blogged anything for RC live, almost a year in fact since my last blogs about my trip to Haiti. A lot has happened since then – but don’t worry, I have no intention of recounting a year’s worth of adventures. Here’s what’s really important to get you up to date: I’ve graduated from Mater Ecclesiae College and now I live in Dallas, TX, helping organize mission trips to Haiti and Mexico for an apostolate called Mission Youth. And if you’ve read my previous blogs about my trip to Haiti you can probably guess that this is a dream come true.
So what gets me writing today?
It’s not another mission trip – though there will be plenty of those in the future.
It’s not about the state of our country or recent presidential elections.
It’s not really even about catching you up on my life.
It started with a one line email I received today: Check this out when you get a chance.
If you take the time to follow the link you’ll read an interesting article about the top best and the top worst jobs in America, complete with job descriptions, fancy diagram and all. The person who sent it to me doesn’t know that I am a consecrated woman, but within a minute of reading it I found myself responding with a description of my own:
Catholic Lay Missionary
Job description: Dedicate your time and efforts to the Church through prayer, organizing missions, youth formation, family and marriage strengthening, and more.
Verdict: This is a vocation! A call received and freely answered to. It’s neither the easiest nor the hardest job out there. Personal comfort has nothing to do with it. Salary? Heaven. Nothing is set but that you live by Gospel values and according to Poverty, Chastity and Obedience. Only one thing is for sure – Happiness. Jesus said that anyone who left mother and father and house would receive 100 fold in return… it’s so true!
According to this article if I have a low-stress, high-paying job, I will have it all. But that’s not how I see things. For me, if I can serve, if I can give, if I can make this world a better place by making God known and loved… that’s my #1 job. In fact, it’s my life.
I’m a Catholic lay missionary, and I love it!
Fobes did a story last year and found that actually the people with the happiest jobs were clergy. I remember authors, teachers, and fire fighters were in the top 10 but beyond that, I can’t remember. I figure a missionary would fit in with clergy in most cases.