Holy Trinity has received a Communities of Calling grant from the Collegeville Institute at St. John's University.
In his book Let Your Life Speak Parker Palmer points out that the word vocation
comes from the Latin word for “voice,” which is why vocation is properly understood
as “a calling that I hear.” And this calling, Palmer suggests, is uniquely
heard in one's life: “I must listen to my life and try to understand what it is
truly about--quite apart from what I would like it to be about...I must listen
to my life telling me who I am.”
Palmer's understanding of calling is linked
with identity, which makes for a certain beautiful simplicity. It means that
God's purpose for
one's life is found in God's design of one's life. And this idea resonates. As writer
Ryan Pemberton offers, “It's something we feel to be true, somehow. Like a kite
released into the wind, there are moments in life when things line up in such a
way that we realize we were created for this.”
The Communities
of Calling Initiative at Holy Trinity is a project based out of St. John’s
in Collegeville and funded by the Lilly Foundation. Holy Trinity has been
selected as one of 14 congregations throughout the United States and Canada to
serve as a partner congregation with this effort. We have received a grant to
explore how Christians discover and deepen their sense of God’s calling.
As is stated on the Communities of Calling
website, “We all love a good story. It’s our belief that vocation is communal
and is lived on the local level. Today’s secular versions focus on the
individual: what do I want to do with my life? But the Christian tradition also
believes callings serve the common good.”
Without a doubt you have a story to tell. What
are the things that you are doing in your life that make your story part of the
human story, part of God’s story? Holy Trinity is about to launch a number of
small groups around a variety of interests in the hope of allowing members to
connect with others in a way that does not always happen on Sunday mornings.
The groups will meet four-six times between January and May.
The grant we’ve received means that we have
money available to support all of these groups’ activities. No one will be
excluded because of finances! Join a small group. Deepen your commitment to
learning about one another and about God’s call for your life!
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