Here's another insight that I gained from the document on Consecrated life and the Salesian Brother... each vocation is a call to do something which all are called to do, but more specifically serve as a living reminder. Not that only those who choose that particular vocation are to do that kind of service or help but most importantly they are to help others do it, and how? By being exemplary models.
Not only are the states of life related and ordered to one another, but each of them also highlights and embodies a quality that belongs to all. There is, within the church, a peculiar relationship between the particular and the universal. The specific characteristic of the deacon, for example, is service; but the whole church is called to serve, so the deacon is best understood as an icon of service - a reminder to everyone in the church of our call to serve. Within a church that is communion, the particular exists for the sake of the universal. Abraham and Israel are chosen and beloved, but precisely so as to become a blessing for the nations. Each state of life in the church is a sign to the others.
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