Foreword
George Weigel explains the significance of personal vocation and its connection to Pope John Paul II.
Introduction
How did Bob Dylan respond when a fan called him Judas? The song of each life, the 7,484,325,476 ways of the Church, and the only Author truly worth reading.
Chapter 1: Knowing Our Culture
David Foster Wallace and liquid modernity. Hunting snowflakes. The divided brain. Pepsi commercials and mimetic desire. Our culture of calculation, disincarnation, and conformity.
Chapter 2: Our Unique Motivational Design
Created design as the seed of personal vocation. The soul's code. Core motivational drive, the primordial vocation. How to listen to a good story. Finding patterns.
Chapter 3: Personal Vocation
The great Exitus-Reditus. Anti-rebels. Why babies babble every possible phoneme and the Word that must be spoken. Personal vocation as the ground of decision making and vocation. A history and theology of vocation.
Chapter 4: Mentoring with Empathy
Knowing one another. Empathy as the key to unlock relationships and vocation. How to listen. Achievement stories.
Chapter 5: A Culture of Vocation
Building a culture of vocation. The adult version of Pinocchio. Why telling and living in the truth is essential for vocational discernment. Language, saint-making education, and the smell test.
Chapter 6: Keys for Guiding Effective Discernment
Keys for effective discernment. Language as instrument. Talents vs. Motivational Design. Silence. Personal vocation as hermeneutic. Self-creative freedom. Finding a mentor.
Chapter 7: Mission
Antifragility. A Mission Year Challenge. A Delta Force Operator on mission. Universal and particular missions. Fisherman in Cetara, Italy. A Personal Prayer.