God continues to invite us

"[H]ow  patient God is with us! He only asks our attention. If we will attend to Him, He will do all the rest. We shall find that things begin to drop into our lap without any asking. In spite of our repeated blind refusals, in spite of our obstinancy and selfwill, up to the very moment of death God continues to invite, to persuade, to beckon.

Now there is one perfectly obvious way in which we can, or ought to be able to detect if we are travelling on the wrong - or just not on the right - path through life. If there is a recurring: 'If I were you I should' in our conversations with other people, we may begin to wonder. This persistent desire on the part of them all to tell us what they would do if they were us, can only mean one thing: whatever the facts may be, we are managing to give the impression that we are not in the right place nor engaged in the right occupation.

Of course we may indignantly exclaim that it is only the mistake of a lot of intolerable busybodies. Very well, then, so much the better. In that case it is quote easy to rectify their mass-mistake by convincing ourselves that our circumstances are just what we should have chosen. If we had all the world to choose from, and that we are doing the one thing on earth which suits us best. When we have convinced ourselves of that, we shall find that quite automatically all the busybodies will begin minding their own business again and no longer be interested in us and our occupations. It is a curious fact, but it has only to be tried to be proved.

On the other hand, let us admit that what they suggest may quite possibly be true. Perhaps we are not making the best of life; not using our gifts to the greatest advantage; we are either misfits or merely forlorn drifters, and everyone else can see if except ourselves. All we do is to grumble in general about life, without making any whole-hearted attempt to grapple with it.

For we have only to turn to God: to think of Him and of our neighbour instead of thinking exclusively along our own lines. We have only to wake up and become aware of existence as a real thing, and God as a real Person, and ourselves as His creation, and the next event in our lives will be that our vocation will come walking down the road to meet us, and bump into us so heavily that even we shall no longer be able to pretend that we do not know what it is."

-- Catch us those little foxes by A Carmelite Nun

Religious vocation & the family's sacrifice

Fear not offering your children back to God. He will reward you in unimaginable ways.

** Please keep in mind that this is just a clip. Many scenes have been cut out.

How fortunate we are to follow our vocation!

"The birds sing louder to the rising sun as though endorsing my early morning picture of a bright and happy world, but one is obliged to follow on to the slightly sobering question: how many people do, in fact, find and follow their real vocation?

We Religious... how fortunate we are, for we have not only found it, but have, as far as human frailty permits, positively chained ourselves to it! That in itself is a great grace, and how many people out in the world, doing so precariously the thing which they love, would give their whole fortune to know that they would be able to go on doing it, better and better, crescendo upon crescendo, until they died! That can be true of every Religious. If we miss it, we miss it by our own fault, for there is nothing between us and it but the missing of our daily proffered grace. Health and age do not affect the issue because neither affects the soul but only the body. The value of a Religious who is constantly growing in the love of God, is a value which increases with every hour lived, and which cannot help but increase since its measure is the love of God.

It is true that almost the same may be said of those who find and follow their genuine vocation in the world, and if they love God, indeed, then exactly the same may be said. More often it is only true - with a difference. Who does not remember the names of those past-masters in art whom the world still flocked to see, to hear, to follow and to love, when they were old, because of the supreme point of ability and perfection which they had reached in their own subject, and which the passage of the years could never mar. But, even so, upon what a thread such earthly success hangs! An accident, an illness, a failure of some human organ and sense, and the earthly part of their career is at an end.

And, how small a number of them there are! Names which shine out in history are few and far between. Yet we were  all created for some individual purpose, within the greater purpose of our eternal salvation and, generally speaking, the quickest and surest way of reaching that purpose should, one would think, logically be open to us. Then how do we come to miss it?

And the answer, on supposes, is that the easiest way either to miss or to lose it is not to be sufficiently aware of its importance. That, after all, is how we come to miss and to lose things. First, of its immense importance to us, because it is our unique opportunity of doing the thing which we were created to do in the supernatural order. Then its natural importance to us also, because we shall so obviously do whatever we were created and equipped to do a great deal better than anything else which we might choose, or which might merely be chosen for us by others less wise and less loving than God. And further, its immense importance to those with whom we live, because a misfit is never a really happy person, nor a very congenial companion in any surroundings.

It is difficult to trace precisely what that unawareness consists in. Sometimes it arises from fear or nervousness: we get the opportunity but it involves a break-away from present circumstances and our courage fails us. We delay, we drift, and gradually the opportunity evaporates until, we hardly know how, it is no longer open to us. Or we set about considering the drawbacks to some new proposition. We forget that everything in life has its drawbacks and, finding small flaws in what is offered us, decide against what we may later discover to have been a chance in a lifetime.

But, in point of fact, if only we are wise enough to be on the lookout for it, it is not easy to miss our vocation, for, when we are young, it knocks at our door with astonishing persistence. Who does not know that idea which comes back and back into the mind? The particular way of life, or profession, or occupation, from which we never seem able to get away, but which is always turning up and meeting us in the most unlikely places."

-- Catch us those little foxes by A Carmelite Nun

Praise your Creator by following the path He meant you to follow

"The choir is filled with the light of an early spring morning. With all the windows open to the south one might almost as well be in the garden, and the birds cry good morning to the sun from the topmost branches of every tree. As I kneel in the first faint sunlight, the first act is to thank God for the grace of one's vocation, while I can be happily certain that every other sister in choir is doing the same. God loves gratitude, and there is no greater grace for which to be grateful to Him than the grace of vocation, whatever that vocation may be.

Whenever we follow our true vocation, whether we are aware of it or not, we are rendering glory to God. It may be conscious or unconscious, but it is always praise of the Almighty, because it is following His divine plan for us, doing the thing for which He created us, fitting into His scheme. In this sense, vocation always brings with it its own grace. How many thousands of people in the world, and all over the world, would be surprised to know that they are praising their Creator by the mere act of following the path He meant them to follow, using the gift He gave them, and doing whatever they happen to have chosen supremely well, just because the gift and the choice come from Him!

They would raise their eyebrows no doubt; they would smile a superior smile; they would shrug their shoulders; but that would not in any way alter the fact. It is a praise which we cannot deny to God so long as we use His gifts and follow His plan for us. We may call it by every other name; we may try to steal the glory by glorifying, as we think, in our successes as if we were the authors of them; but nothing can alter the fact that these are the successes of the Divine Creator, and that His creatures are only displaying the wonders of God by showing what richness He has put into human nature, and what variety into human capacity.

Here we have the reason why people who are genuinely following their vocation usually do whatever they are doing so well, or, if not perhaps so quite so well as they sometimes think, at all events so happily. It is because they are using the grace of God which goes with the gift and the call to use it - the grace which accompanies any action of God and enables us to fulfill His purpose."

-- Catch us those little foxes by A Carmelite Nun

The hidden dynamos of prayer

"Why are there monasteries and convents? Why do many young souls leave the lights and glamour of the world for the shades and shadows of the Cross where saints are made? The modern world so little understands their mission that, as soon as a newspaperman lhears of a handsome young woman entering a cloister, he telephones the parents to ask, "Was she disappointed in love?" The answer, of course, is, "Yes, with the love of the world. Shea has fallen in love with God." These hidden dynamos of prayer, the cloistered men and women, are doing more for our country than all its politicians, its labor leaders, its army and navy put together; they are atoning for the sins of us all. They are averting the just wrath of God, repairing the broken fences of those who sin and pray not, rebel and atone not. As ten just men would have saved Sodom and Gomorrah, so ten just saints can save a nation now. But so long as a citizenry is more impressed by what its cabinet does than by its chosen souls who are doing penance, the rebirth of the nation has not yet begun. The cloistered are the purest of patriots. They have not become less interested in the world since leaving it; indeed, they have become more interested in the world than ever before. But they are not concerned with whether it will buy and sell more; they care - and desparately care - whether it will be more virtuous and love God more."

-- Peace of Soul by Archbishop Fulton J Sheen 

Memorial of St Columban

"Saint Columban (540-615) was born in Ireland sometime between the year 540 and 550. He became a monk at Bangor and was sent as a missionary to Gaul with twelve other monks in 585. He built his first monastery at Annegray in 590 followed by two more at Luxeuil and Fontaines. Soon his followers spread to France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy. The strict rule he imposed on these monasteries was observed in Gaul until the rule of Saint Benedict replaced it He so angered King Theodoric II of Burgundy over Columban's denunciation of the king's practice of keeping concubines that the king banished all Irish monks from his realm. Columban decided to flee the area and crossed the Alps to Italy and was welcomed in Milan by King Agilulf of the Lombards. He founded a monastery at Bobbio near Milan which became one of the great monasteries of its time as a center of culture, learning and spirituality. He died there in 615 leaving behind a collection of spiritual writings including his Monastic Rule, sermons, poetry and treatises against Arianism. Below is one of his spiritual instructions.

-o-

Brethren, let us follow that vocation by which we are called from life to the fountain of life. He is the fountain, not only of living water but of eternal life. He is the fountain of light and spiritual illumination; for from him come all these things: wisdom, life and eternal light. The author of life is the fountain of life; the creator of light is the fountain of spiritual illumination. Therefore, let us seek the fountain of light and life and the living water by despising what we see, by leaving the world and by dwelling in the highest heavens. Let us seek these things, and like rational and shrewd fish may we drink the living water which wells up to eternal life.

Merciful God, good Lord, I wish that you would unite me to that fountain, that there I may drink of the living spring of the water of life with those others who thirst after you. There in that heavenly region may I ever dwell, delighted with abundant sweetness, and say: "How sweet is the fountain of living water which never fails, the water welling up to eternal life."

O God, you are yourself that fountain ever and again to be desired, ever and again to be consumed. Lord Christ, always give us this water to be for us the source of the living water which wells up to eternal life. I ask you for your great benefits. Who does not know it? You, King of glory, know how to give great gifts, and you have promised them; there is nothing greater than you, and you bestowed yourself upon us; you gave yourself for us.

Therefore, we ask that we may know what we love, since we ask nothing other than that you give us yourself. For you are our all: our life, our light, our salvation, our food and our drink, our God. Inspire our hearts, I ask you, Jesus, with that breath of your Spirit; wound our souls with your love, so that the soul of each and every one of us may say in truth: Show me my soul's desire, for I am wounded by your love.

These are the wounds I wish for, Lord. Blessed is the soul so wounded by love. Such a soul seeks the fountain of eternal life and drinks from it, although it continues to thirst and its thirst grows ever greater even as it drinks. Therefore, the more the soul loves, the more it desires to love, and the greater its suffering, the greater its healing. In this same way may our God and Lord Jesus Christ, the good and saving physician, wound the depths of our souls with a healing wound - the same Jesus Christ who reigns in unity with the Father and the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen."

-- From the Liturgy of the Hours

This stained glass window of St Columban is in the Basilica of Bobbio. The photography is by Giorgio Zanetti.

Listen to the mysterious invitations that come continually throughout life

"I believe human life is a marvelous adventure. Despite the burden of sufferings and siappointments, it offers us means to grow in humanity, freedom, and interior peace, while exercising our entire capacity for love and joy.

There is, however, one condition. We must give up our own agendas and allow ourselves to be led by life, in happy events and difficult ones, while learning to recognize and accept the calls addressed to us day by day.

'Call' is the keyword... The idea, simple but very meaningful, is absolutely fundamental to our temporal and spiritual plans. Human beings cannot attain fulfillment solely by carrying out their own projects. These projects are legitimate and necessary, and we must bring our intelligence and energy to bear on accomplishing them. But that's not enough, and in the event of failure it can lead to disillusionment. Another attitude, one in the end more decisive and fruitful, must accompany our initiating and carrying our of projects: that of listening to the calls, the discrete, mysterious invitations that come to us continually throughout life. This attitude of listening and availability takes priority over even the projects themselves. I believe we can be fulfilled as human beings only to the extent that we perceive and respond to the calls life addresses to us day in and day out: calls to change, grow, mature, enlarge our hearts and our horizons, and leave behind hardness of heart and narrow-mindedness in order to welcome reality in a larger and more confident manner.

These calls come to us in many ways. Sometimes they come through experiences or by the example of others who touch us, sometimes from desires that arise in our hearts or requests from people who are close to us, often from Holy Scripture. They originate from God, who gives us life, never ceases to watch over us, and wants tenderly to lead and constantly intervene for each of his children in a way that is discreet, often imperfectible, yet efficacious. Although many are, unfortunately, unaware of this presence and action of God, they reveal themselves to those who know how to place themselves in the attitude of listening and availability.

God is the God of the living, not the deat. He reaches out to us continually, mysteriously but certainly, infusing our lives with value, beauty, and fruitfulness beyond our imagining."

--  Called to Life by Jacques Philippe

We are the laborers of the Father

"We must give ourselves; that is, we must bring forth from this interior sanctuary where we keep the best part of ourselves, some thoughts, chosen from among the best and most lofty, which, once they have gone forth from us, will become acts of love and words of life. We must firmly resolve to try to give our best, to do all the good we can. The unknown resources of strength, energy, and nobility lying within our depths must become the property of our brothers by a valiant effort and a generous surrender of our inmost personality.

-o-

God, in giving us life, assigns to each one of us a special task to do and a role in the fulfillment of His eternal plan. The important thing, then, above all, is to come to know this particular mission well, to discern the divine Will in our soul and in our life, and then to set ourselves to work, and to make of our entire life and death a means of salvation for ourselves and our brothers.

We are the divine Master's humble workmen, the laborers of the Father, and when the night shall come, we must be able to tell Him with cofidence that the harvest is ready and that the living Sun may now cause to grow the seeds that we have sown."

-- From Daily Thoughts by Elisabeth Leseur

Feast of St Matthew

"The feast of the holy apostle Matthew brings to mind his memorable call and his glorious work. It was a great hour indeed in Matthew's life when Jesus approached the tax-gatherer's desk, gazed into his eyes and said: 'Follow Me.' We need not hold that these words came to him wholly unprepared. Matthew had already known Jesus. Perhaps he had been at the Jordan with John the Baptist and was baptized. Then he became a zealous listener to Jesus' preaching in Galilee. And now the Master says to him: 'Follow Me." And he followed.

It was not a resolution easily made to give up a goodly position, to leave a pleasant family, and to plunge into an unknown future. Yet Matthew followed. It was a hard but happy exchange he was making. For he received in return the friendship of Jesus, the glory of apostleship, the honor of an evangelist. For a tax-gatherer's table he would receive a judgment seat over Israel, for its load of wares, immortal souls; in place of money, heavenly treasures became his portion!

Follow Me! The words bring to mind my vocation. I too was called. Also to me Jesus said: Follow Me. At baptism He first invited me, and often He has repeated that invitation. Many an event in life is a call from God. (...) Is there, however, a common calling, one given to all, whether priests, laymen, married, or nuns? St Ignatius says: 'Yes - to praise God, to serve Him and to save one's soul.' A familiar phrase. We are called to belong to the family of God. As the apostle Paul proclaims on apostle feasts: 'You are now no longer guests and strangers, you are citizens of God's people, members of His family.'

We are called to be children of God, already a high end; yet not the highest. The highest is that we are called to be numbered among Christ's members, incorporated most intimately into Him. We are cells in Christ's Mystical Body, His divine life should diffuse itself in us. Such is the highest purpose of our calling. In itself it makes little difference what particular role in Christ's Body I play or what portion of the Body's work falls to me. The important thing is that Christ's strength is operative in me, that Christ spreads Himself through me. This calling is a grace, a gift, but also a duty. It is bound up inextricably with my cooperation. Linked to the great central power station, I must allow that power to operate. I must identify myself with Christ in every action. Such is the tremendous task assigned me."

-- The Church's Year of Grace by Dr Pius Parsch

Today we celebrate the feast of St Matthew, apostle. Please pray for all religious, priests, deacons, nuns, and missionaries around the world who have left their homes, families, friends, and countries to "Follow Him."

Carmel

Elisabeth entered the Carmel in Dijon on August 2, 1901, and received the religious name Elisabeth of the Trinity. She made her profession in 1903. She died on November 9, 1906, after suffering from of Addison’s disease (incurable at the time). Her last words were: “I am going to Light, to Love, to Life!” Beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1984, she discovers to us the centrality of the Word of God, baptismal grace, and the participation in the intimate life of God Trinity.

The Carmelite vocation

Elisabeth beautifully expressed the Call to Carmel in this following prayer:

The Carmelite is a given soul, one immolated for the glory of God. With her Christ she is crucified; but how luminous is her calvary! While gazing on the divine Victim, a light blazed forth in her soul and, understanding her sublime mission, her wounded heart exclaimed: “Here I am!”

“The Carmelite is an adoring soul, wholly surrendered to the action of God, intently communicating through all things, her heart uplifted and her eyes full of heaven! She has found the One Thing Necessary, The divine Being, Light and Love. Enfolding the world in her prayer, she is an apostle of truth.”