from the
Center for
Spiritual
Resources
- Saturday, October 8, 2011, 10 a.m.–3 p.m., Cathedral of All Souls
- Cost: $25 ($20 if registering with another person)
- Includes morning hospitality and a light lunch
As Sam Portaro, the 2011 Zabriskie Learning Series presenter, points out, when we hear the word “vocation,” many of us ask, “What does that have to do with me? I’m not called to be a priest or deacon!” As I was reflecting on vocation and the vocation conversation gatherings we are planting around the diocese, I remembered one of the many gifts I’ve received from the All Souls’ book group—the value of close reading and looking up words to more fully understand their meaning—and so I went to my dictionary. Vocation, from the Latin vocare, a verb that means, “to call.” Called to what? To answer the question, “For what purpose was I born?” And that is the question every one of us will spend our entire lives answering.
When we hear the word “conversation,” we often think about what we will say, what we will share. What we want others to know about us. Yet, the most sacred dimension of conversation is its gift of allowing us to listen; to listen for understanding; to listen for deeply held values; to listen others into being.
Conversation offers an opportunity to share our stories as a way to understand one another as we are to ourselves; and to begin to see ourselves as God sees us. Yet, we can’t know ourselves by ourselves. We need each other to be a witness to our hunger and our blessings—the gifts God is calling for us to use in this broken and uncertain world; the unique gifts the world most needs.
Please join Sam Portaro as he guides us more deeply into an understanding and practice of the ways we can listen for and honor where, and to what, God is calling us. In love, in work, in relationships. As children, students, newly married, new parents, caregivers, empty-nesters, in career crisis, retirement, through illness, special needs, and in dying. All of these stages in life offer blessed opportunities to ask and to listen for where God is calling us.
Learn how to listen, how to discern, how to honor and respond to our evolving and ever-changing calling to an authentic life. Learn how to use this tool for lifelong transformation.
Sam Portaro is also offering a day-long program for adult formation and vocation at St. Mark’s, Gastonia on Monday, October 10. Visit thecsr.org for more details.
Sam Portaro was ordained in the Diocese of Western North Carolina and began his ministry as Vicar of Church of the Epiphany in Newton NC. He served as Episcopal Chaplain to William & Mary and Associate Rector of Bruton Parish in Williamsburg from 1976–1982, and then enjoyed a long and rich career in campus ministry mentoring students and young adults, serving as Episcopal Chaplain to the University of Chicago and Director of Brent House for 22 years. Portaro is now a full-time consultant, speaker, and mentor for others working with vocation. His published work reflects his own vocational journey: Inquiring & Discerning Hearts: Vocation & Ministry with Young Adult on Campus, Crossing the Jordan: Meditations on Vocation, Conflict, A Christian Life, Sheer Christianity, and Transforming Vocation, a volume in Transformations Series published by Church Publishing.