PROMPT

Many of us would ordinarily regard concepts or ideas as useful — as enabling and

allowing us to move around and interact with the rest of humanity and the natural

world. We may consider this way of looking at concepts as common-sensical or

something learned from our culture. Yes, common sense or cultural sense tells us that

the word 'black', for example, is used to refer to a color. There are, however, other ways

of understanding 'black' and some of these are not quite neutral: like when we hear the

slogan "black lives matter"; or a "black propaganda" does not refer to the color at all. In

other words, a concept has more loads of sense in it than just its common-sensical

meaning.

The concept of Vocation also has loads of meaning that cannot just be packed by one's

culture or common sense. It is, thus, important to examine further our knowledge

about the concept and its implications for our lives. The next activity is an exercise that

will do that.

In this session, you will go to your groups and share your thoughts about the

concept of Vocation. Note the following guidelines:

1) Share your previous understanding [before enrolling in TH 13; see your Module 1

posts] about the concept of Vocation.

2) Identify the various beliefs/values (cultural, religious, non-religious,

class/group/gender biases, etc.) that shaped your understanding of vocation.

3) How did the subsequent knowledge gained from the TH 13 sessions and from the

article affect your views about vocation or goals? Do you think these academic gains

would have an impact on your views or practices as regards your pursuits or goals?

4) Gather your shared ideas in a reflection paper (with 800+ words; saved as PDF).

Format: 1.5 line spacing, Times Roman font size 11, 1" margins.

DO NOT JUST COLLECT INDIVIDUAL REFLECTIONS; COME UP WITH A COMPOSITION

THAT SYNTHESIZES THE DIFFERENT IDEAS FROM ALL THE MEMBERS OF YOUR GROUP.
REMEMBER THAT YOU ARE EXPECTED TO SHOW OR DEMONSTRATE WHAT YOU

HAVE LEARNED FROM THE PREVIOUS MODULES (WITH THE READINGS, VIDEOS, AND

LECTURES INVOLVED).

Kindly, review the rubrics for essays found in the Syllabus.

OUTLINE

1) Share your previous understanding [before enrolling in TH 13; see your Module 1

posts] about the concept of Vocation.

- We thought that vocation was either

- Mere occupation

- Religious (Priest/Nun/Serving God)

- Our goals were only about occupation

- We were always asked what we wanted to be when we grow up

and what job role in society we would want to undertake later on

in life; usually, this would entail us searching for an occupation

that would pay us well and let us feel like “we were on vacation”

when we were working (alluding to how much we would love our

future jobs). We had no escape to this question growing up which

definitely contributed to shaping our notion of what vocation is.

- Ultimately, the notion of Vocation in our eyes came in the shape of an

occupation that would (1) make use of our talents, (2) provide us with a

reasonable amount of remuneration for the work we put in, and (3)

passion we felt in accomplishing the job role we chose.

2) Identify the various beliefs/values (cultural, religious, non-religious,

class/group/gender biases, etc.) that shaped your understanding of vocation.

- infographic content

- 1st nature: Bio-psychological calls; instincts — instinct of hunger for

food, thirst for drink, nature of humans as relational beings hence

instinct to seek for care and also instinct to express one's self, etc.
 - instincts are callings us to satisfy these drives of ours

- 2nd nature: Primary socio-cultural calls — toilet training, table

manners, language (expressing ourselves and feelings), civilizing rituals,

etc.

- Culture gives us the food for example; culture satisfies our drives

- 2nd nature goes hand in hand with the 1st nature without

needing to teach us any foundation aside from instinct

- These 1st and 2nd calls become the bedrock of our self-identity, self-

awareness, self-dispositions, self-convictions, self-perspectives, self-

interests

- There have been so many calls already before we actively hear a

calling

- We ourselves are answers to calls that have existed before us, so

we have already answered calls and responded to various calls

and have formed something in us before we actively respond to

any calls.

- Culture is Quasi-obligatory — solid but open to transformations

- E.g. woman used to not wear pants before which was part of the

culture before, but when women started to wear pants they were

not prohibited from doing so. when people have the courage to

go against the tide of the dominant culture, another culture is

born wherein, in this case, the solidness of the tradition was a

construct destroyed (counter cultural actions)

- Mention sht about what family taught us

- Vocation is your life’s work/your job

- Vocation is greatly influenced by external factors that shape our

character and perspectives of life.

- In the past, our notion of vocation was also heavily influenced by

what our parents wanted us to pursue in life. Mimetic developmen

 - Our parents were taught to pick professions that would

allow for them to be able to survive in developed and urban

cities, and more often than not this called for them to attain

job roles that were heavily embedded into the capitalist

systems that these urban cities revolved around. Having

essentially “tried and tested” this way of living in terms of

managing survival in urban cities, we are therefore

nurtured by our parents that our calling in life is one that is

much like theirs — one that will allow for our own

survival.

- Mention stuff that society taught us (friends, strangers, media, etc.)

- Media usually frames vocation as something that refers to or is

exclusive to priests, monks, etc.

- In addition to this religious vocation is thought to be better than

non-religious vocation (one is “more holy” than the other)

- In movies like the Bee movie, one’s calling is usually the be-all-end-

all. Essentially, one is called to a certain vocation, and once he/she

finds it, that’s what he/she does for the rest of his/her life.

- Enculturation is the undertaking of different cultures to the point

that these cultures become parts of our own selves

- Socialization is the process of enculturation

- Culture — 2nd nature, internalized thru socialization

- Through parents, neighbors, and built environments

- These are spaces that have become facets for

learning

- Pathway of imitation is already being established even as a baby;

we imitate immediately because that is how we get our own

personalities and acceptance from other people

- The real challenge is how to transcend the predispositions of ours

in order to understand Jesus' call for us. We should go beyond our

own predispositions and go beyond something called the tyranny

 of our ancestors. How do we transition to answering the call of

Jesus? We can start doing so by first understanding that we have

already sold ourselves to other callings.

- What can we say about vocation in all of this? Who are we?

- We temporarily constitute — ultimately defined by

temporality

- linguistically shaped

- spatially determined

- developing but mimetically

- [transition into next part] While we understood these things to be an

unhealthy notion of vocation, we also understood that these are things

that we are born with, that is, culture and biases/ideologies existing

before we were even conceived of in the womb. It is up to our conscious

efforts, therefore, to objectively recognize these biases and work towards

understanding a more holistic perspective.

- Having substantial exposure in one’s life would aid us to see through

multiple lenses and have a holistic view of the different aspects of life. We

believe that it would equip us with the knowledge to discern and filter out

the misconceptions of vocation.

3) How did the subsequent knowledge gained from the TH 13 sessions and from the

article affect your views about vocation or goals? Do you think these academic gains

would have an impact on your views or practices as regards your pursuits or goals?

- https://www.theologyofwork.org/key-topics/vocation-overview-article

- 2 Corinthians 5:17-20: So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation:

everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All

this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has

given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was

reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against

them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are

 ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us;

we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

- The calling to belong to Christ goes deeper than the kinds of

workplace “calling” that are the main focus of this article. For

this reason, it is important to start our exploration of calling

with the call to follow Jesus. It is a call to a restored

relationship with God and with other people and with the

world around us. It encompasses all of a person’s being and

doing. It reminds us that the call to a particular kind of work is

secondary to the call to belong to Christ and to participate in

his redemption of the world.

- The articles and TH 13 sessions we experienced ultimately challenge our

pre-established mindsets such that our priorities and life options shifted

alongside the way we saw Vocation. Thoughts like, “What occupation

should I take on later on in life so that I can capitalize on?” or “What

occupations would I love and at the same time earn me a lot of money?”,

changed as we realized that Vocation is not something that should be

selfishly pursued.

- Think about how what I do in my own personal life helps other

people. Essentially try to reflect upon how the things I am doing

are impacting the lives of others.

- As of now, we are sons, brothers, friends, and children of God but

we are extremely capable despite our young age to be people for

others. We plan to follow Christ’s example by being a supportive

pillar to our brothers and sisters and carry on His mission of

spreading love.

- new perspective → new goals (be a better person, follow god’s will)

- VOCATION IS NOT LIMITED/CONSTRAINED

- Vocation is not limited to being an occupation/lifestyle as it can

also touch various places of our lives. Things like marriage, being a

brother, etc. can be considered a vocation.

 - Vocation can happen anywhere and anytime in our lives. Vocation

is not rigid, but something that is complex and constantly changing

in our lives as we encounter different people and situations.

- Vocation involves choosing, and then trusting God with that decision

- Vocation is not preordained or assigned, it comes from the

deepest individuality of a person and takes shape in the works or

activities that the subject identifies himself/herself with. Just like

how Paul’s apostleship wasn’t ordained by God, but it came out of

the works that he did for God and the ministry that came out of it.

- Instead of thinking that taking a non-religious path is one that is

against God’s will/not pleasing to God. We are now more willing to

take up a non-religious path knowing that even these could be

considered as our vocation (God calls us as we are and where we

are).

- After THEO 13, we have become aware of the many callings that happen

in different stages of our lives and, moving forward, hopefully, we will be

able to spot each one and address them to the best of our ability.

- In the end, going back to our initial idea of Vocation as something we

would be passionate about (having this sense that we are on vacation

when in our occupation), our academic gains from TH 13 tell us that we

become passionate about our calling in life not solely because of the

internal enjoyment (happiness that caters to our bio-physiological calls)

we attain out of, for example, running a business in the Philippines. We

find passion in our Vocation knowing that we answer an invitation of God

and using our talents not only to make ourselves better, but also to help

others