In today's gospel someone in the crowd says to Jesus, "Blessed is the womb that bore you." Jesus replies that blessing belongs to those who hear the Word of God and keep it. I have been thinking about what this all says about vocation and discernment. The vocation piece is somewhat obvious. Our vocation is to listen to the word of God and obey. Easy to say. But how?

Jesus is the Word of God and the essence of every vocation is in being a disciple of Jesus, obeying God as Jesus did. But how? And what does that mean in the concrete of my daily life? I like to think about my very being as a word that God is speaking. I am a word of God and God is right now speaking me. If Jesus is THE Word of God, then somewhere in Jesus is the limited word that I am. I am in Jesus. There is something about Jesus that I am to reveal in my life, in my actions, in the person I become through my decisions. So the first thing that is important in determining who I am to become as a word of God, is to be attentive daily to the scriptures, to listen and find out what it is about Jesus that is especially attractive, to hear how my being resonates with the life of Jesus. In that I will find my call.

When Jesus says that praise is due to the one who listens to God's word and heeds it, he is saying that the most important thing about Mary is her bringing the Word of God into the world. It is even more important than the physical birth of her child Jesus. And indeed, she listened to the messenger of God and said, "Yes." All of us can look back on our lives and see many accomplishments of which we are proud and worthy of praise. What is essential in our discernment is to see what in those events speaks to us of God. Do we hear a call in those accomplishments? Do they reveal something of God--of the Word of God and of ourselves as a word of God?

Reflecting on our life as containing a message from God is an important part of discernment. Where have I been? What have I been doing? Where is God in all of that? Do I see who am am called to become? How can I best become the word God speaks when God speaks me?