We gave our readers a one-word writing prompt: “call.”
vocation
On the good days, this is the best job in the world. Yet, as I wedge my foot into my heels, I must recognize the difficulties of our vocation.
Catholic sisters and their difficult vocation
Alice McDermott ponders a mystery: How is it that women hear the calling and find the strength to love and support their neighbors?
The vocation of surviving
Patrick B. Reyes reflects on the soils that have sustained him—and those that have poisoned him.
“You’ve talked about a lot of things,” says your refiner’s fire. “Which is the one that really matters?”
Anesthesiologist Ronald W. Dworkin reminds me that going to the doctor isn’t the same as sharing a cocktail with a friend.
The isolation of Wallace Stevens
A new biography reveals the poet’s devotion to his vocation. It also reveals his loneliness.
Self-realization is possible only in relation to a reality beyond the self.
Many parts, one pastor
Ministry today requires multiple strategies and layered identities.
The work that begins at retirement
Life's later decades present distinctive virtues—and vices.
Poetry that bids us welcome
How is it that the poems of a 17th-century aristocrat still resonate with us?
Death's call and our response
Even in the secular imagination, dying has become a vocation.
Too good for this world
If your mother is drowning in one location and two strangers in another, should you save your mother or the two strangers?
The Finest Traditions of My Calling, by Abraham M. Nussbaum
Nussbaum, a psychiatrist who labels himself a “bad Catholic,” delves with religious fervor into the mystery of his calling to serve people who suffer. Guided by mentors like Basil of Caesarea, Hildegard of Bingen, and Stanley Hauerwas, he envisions medical care as a precious craft honed by the development of virtue.
Cultivating character
Cultivating character is the lifelong work of evaluating and choosing between various virtues. It's difficult, and it’s our calling.