Responding to God's Call: 'The Vocation Call Would Not Leave My Heart'

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Seminarian Oscar Marquina

Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of personal vocation stories from seminarians, religious women, deacons and priests in the Diocese of Salt Lake City. Seminarian Oscar Marquina is completing his second year of pre-theology at Mount Angel Seminary in Oregon. In the fall, he will attend the Pontifical North American College in Rome.

Seminarian Oscar Marquina

Q. Tell us about your vocational call.

A. After practicing and growing deeper in our faith, being a college graduate and working professionally for two years, I was jokingly asked, “When can we send you to the seminary?” That night was the first time I heard about the seminary, and on my walk home it was completely clear – God wanted me to be a priest. Although it’s rare to have an instant illumination and surety of your vocation, this was cemented after another two years of discernment, where I was working and thinking about the priesthood. During that time my vocational call would not leave my heart.

Q. What would you say to someone discerning a vocation to religious life?

A. If someone is already discerning a vocation to the priesthood or religious life, at that point the best place to discern is in the seminary, in the monastery, or in the convent. These institutions are, in part, houses of formation and discernment. Not only do these places form priests and religious, but they form saints. In religious life there is a postulant period and in the seminary there is constant discernment about your vocation. Our universal Church can act in two ways: accepting vocations after having proven their commitment, or being generous in accepting those who are in search for God’s will. The Church, in accordance with the greatest virtue, is charitable and helps women and men discern God’s will at any stage of their call inside the walls of the most engaging and active grounds of the Church.

As a more practical suggestion to someone considering a vocation, the biggest discernment tool for me was the actual application process. Apply and let the vocations director say “yes” or “no.” It doesn’t matter what happens next; there is no obligation, but it sure helps make things clear.