“Vocations -- States of Life -- How They May Be Discovered and Furthered” was the subject chosen by Very Reverend Vincent Brennan, S.M., when he addressed the Parents’ Club of Immaculate Heart of Mary School on February 2. Drawing from his long experience with young people and their parents, Fr. Brennan had many practical suggestions to offer the mothers and fathers present to help them in their work of helping their children find their places in God’s plan.

Examining the word “vocation,” Fr. Brennan explained that our primary vocation is so to live that we may “be with God forever.” Earthly vocations are of two general types: social -- dealing with us as individuals in society, helping society in the priestly or other religious life or in married life, and personal, which refers to the profession or line of work chosen by the individual.

Parents have the obligation to help children prepare for their social vocations. Mothers and fathers are obligated to help supply vocations to the church and this may be done by fostering the religious life of the home, by encouraging - though not pushing the youngster who thinks he or she may have a religious vocation, by speaking well of priests, brothers, sisters and the kind of lives they lead, and by not placing obstacles in the way of a boy or girl who wants to try out a vocation in the convent or seminary. All of us can help by avoiding the idea of branding as a failure the person who finds, after trying it, that the religious life is not for him.

Most of our sons and daughters will choose the vocation of marriage, and this is as it should be, Fr. Brennan stated. Parents, then, should give their children the kind of background which will prepare them for happy, useful married lives. Growing up in a happy family is a wonderful preparation for marriage; wealth is not necessary, but responsibility, helpfulness, and the ability to get along together are. A good father assumes the responsibility for providing for the material needs and spiritual leadership of the family; the good mother helps as only she can, but neither parent should assume the role of a servant, depriving a child of the opportunity and experience of doing things for himself and others. Although it is easier for mothers to prepare meals without the help of her little daughter, she must remember that little girls begin by making messes but learn to do better as they grow up so that someday they are ready to prepare good meals for the young men they marry, and later for their own families.

Young people today are bombarded constantly with propaganda of the kind calculated to undermine their ideals, morals, and ruin their lives. The antidote for this is a positive, not a negative approach to the virtue of purity. Purity is not based on a list of don’ts, but on a few important do’s. If parents and teachers help young people to see that their lives are a preparation for the tremendously important vocations of marriage, fatherhood, and motherhood, the virtue of purity is seen as something worth striving for.

As far as personal vocations are concerned, Fr. Brennan said that there are some 22,000 different lines of work in the United States today. For the majority of these, some college training is needed, particularly for boys.