Someone shared this quote with me about the meaning of vocation and it seems to me to be an excellent explanation."God calls all the souls he has created to love Him with their whole being, here and hereafter, which means that He calls all of them to holiness, to perfection, to a close following of Him and obedience to His will. But He does not ask all souls to show their love by the same works, to climb to heaven by the same ladder, to achieve goodness in the same way of life. What sort of work, then, must I do? Which is my road to heaven? In what kind of life am I to sanctify myself?...This question: "What kind of life am I going to undertake?" is the question of vocation...There is therefore a very grave duty for each one of us when we reach a certain age to take the most careful trouble to find out what vocation we have to follow. This vocation is God's call to undertake such-and-such a sort of holy life in preference to all others, His urgent call to each and individual soul to sanctify itself in this particular way. There can never be any question of choosing a vocation: the word 'choice' is excluded by the word 'vocation,' which means 'calling,' a call from God."
--- Charles de Foucauld, 1858-1916
