A Penitent Blogger

Mindful of my imperfections, seeking to know Truth more deeply and to live Love more fully.

Quid sum miser tunc dicturus? Quem patronum rogaturus? Cum vix iustus sit securus?
Recordare, Iesu pie, Quod sum causa tuae viae: Ne me perdas illa die...

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

"I find many who will ask..."

"'I wonder what I want to do with my life?'

"and I find another smaller group of young and other aged people who are asking a very different and more challenging question:

"'I wonder what God wants me to do with my life?'

"The question you choose to ask will have a direct impact on the direction your life will take and those whom God wants to entrust to your care.

"What would happen if a group of young people were to make this prayer:

"'Lord, if you have something special which needs to be done -- even if it is difficult, especially if it is difficult—I pray for the grace to say, yes—Give me the grace to do something challenging for You with my life.'

"Jesus changed the world with a small group of men. All the saints made this kind of surrender.

"What about you?

"St. Paul said it with his words and with his life: 'None of us lives as his own master and none of us dies as his own master. While we live we are responsible to the Lord, and when we die we die as his servants. Both in life and in death we are the Lord’s' (Romans 14.7-9).

The Lord tends not to answer with claps of thunder or visions but through the still whisper heard in prayer and waiting.

"When I was a college student Fr. Burke (now Bishop Burke) told me to spend time in the Blessed Sacrament chapel. He said, 'You will find your vocation through prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.' This prayer has changed my life and truly has led me to the priesthood.

"I invite and challenge you to make this prayer of surrender. If we could only learn to make this personal surrender to Jesus Christ there would not be a shortage of holy priests, deacons, religious, as well as holy married persons."

Rev. Joseph Hirsch
Director of Vocations
Diocese of La Crosse

excerpted from the Vocations website of
the Diocese of LaCrosse