Vocation – a purpose and passion that we live for and get up for every day. I believe that we are each called to a vocation. And, the call to a vocation is, in fact, a faith journey. It is one of listening to your inner soul and the Holy Spirit.
I am a licensed clinical social worker and outreach worker in the Hartford, Middletown and New Haven areas. Since 1994, I have attended St. Patrick-St. Anthony Church and am also a member of the Committee for Social Justice.
At times it may seem difficult to distinguish between ‘vocation’ and ‘making a living’ while still remaining faithful to our call. Both of my parents served in vocations of “helping” professions – one, a school social worker in Hartford and the other, a registered radiologic technologist in the trauma center of St. Francis Hospital. I knew very young that we are each a part of something much bigger than ourselves.
My “calling” came naturally as it is one that encompasses the core values of social work: compassion, service, social justice, advocacy, integrity, competence, empowerment, dignity and respecting the worth and importance of other humans. My work and passion have been serving as a bridge to better the lives of my clients; offering hope and acting in accompaniment, side by side, shoulder to shoulder, offering a hand up, not a hand out. Accompaniment is front and center to me. It is reflected in one of my favorite readings from the New Testament – the Road to Emmaus. Jesus is walking right alongside us every day. We just need to be aware of His presence.
These past 34 years of social work have carried me to many places, seeing the face of Jesus in many others along the way. In 1989, I had the opportunity to travel to central El Salvador to meet with our brothers and sisters who were enduring the atrocities of their civil war. This was nine years after Archbishop Oscar Romero was murdered. I was amazed by the faith of the people in Central America. Their faith was and continues to be a lesson to me.
In 2012, I began the journey of experiencing life at the U.S. / Mexican border while carrying hope and supplies to people in day shelters and in the Sonoran Desert. On Holy Thursday of 2013, I had the blessed experience of kneeling on a cement floor of a small shelter in Nogales, Sonora with migrants, deportees and volunteers, each taking turns washing each other’s feet.
Here in central CT through my Emmaus Migrant Advocacy Project, we build community for seasonal and migrant workers. We help with their assimilation by linking them to healthcare, legal aid, and psycho-social supports.
No matter what vocation one is called to, faith is what we carry in us which remains the constant in a world of change. Faith in something greater than ourselves is the foundation that holds us up. Some days it is all we have and it carries us through. As Archbishop Romero said “we may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the Master Builder and worker. We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own”.
Just today, one of my clients thanked me as I was leaving the home visit. He said, “It’s not just a profession, it is a calling.”
MaryJoan Picone