Year III, Number 29

wants to rely on you.

This text and the two that follow are taken from Pope John Paul II: speech of January 6, 1979; Letter to the youth of the world, 1985, nos. 8 and 9.

I speak especially to you, young people. Or rather, I would like to speak with you, with each one of you. You are very dear to me and I have great confidence in you. I have called you the hope of the Church and my hope. Let us recall a few things together. The beautiful answers given to the Lord who had called are preserved in the treasure of the Gospel... From the time of the first announcement of the Gospel until our days, a great number of men and women have given their personal, free and conscious answer to Christ's call. They have chosen the priesthood, religious life, or missionary life as the objective ideal of their existence. They have served the People of God and humanity with faith, wisdom, courage and love. Your hour has come. It is your turn to answer. Are you afraid?

Let us reflect together in the light of faith. Our life is a gift from God. We must do something good. There are many ways to spend your life at the service of human and Christian ideals. If I speak to you today of total consecration to God in the priesthood, religious life and missionary life, it is because Christ calls many of you to this extraordinary adventure. He needs you, He wants to rely on you, your intelligence, your energies, your faith, your love, your holiness. If Christ calls you to the priesthood it is because He wants to exercise his priesthood, by means of your priestly consecration and mission. He wants to speak to people with your voice, consecrate the Eucharist and forgive sins through you, and love with your heart. He wants to help others with your hands, and to save with your toil. Think about it well. The answer which many of you could give is directed personally to Christ, who calls you to these great things.

You will find difficulties. Do you think I do not know them? I tell you that love can conquer any difficulty. The true answer to each vocation is a work of love. The answer to the priestly, religious, or missionary vocation can only arise from a deep love for Christ. He himself offers you this force of love, as a gift in addition to the gift of your call which makes your answer possible. Have confidence in the One who has the power to make us thrive more abundantly than we asked for or thought (Eph. 3:20). And, if you can, give your life joyfully, without fear, to Him who has already given his life for you.

Q. Dear Father Anthony,

I would like to start off by saying that you gave an excellent message to me when I was at Spiritual Exercises with you. It really made my faith stronger. I have a question to ask you. I am really thinking about becoming a diocesan priest and I really want to be one... however there is one problem. There is certain times in my life when girls really attract me and I don’t want them to. I have more of a passion to become a priest and its burning inside me. Since I feel this attraction for girls does it mean I’m not cut out for priesthood?

Keith

A. Dear Keith,

I am glad you found the spiritual exercises helpful, and I pray that you persevere in your decision to follow Christ in the diocesan priesthood.

As regards your attraction for girls, the first thing it says is that you are probably normal. The key to priesthood is not the absence of attraction, but the reasons you have for choosing something else, and what you do to strengthen yourself in your commitment. Keep in very high esteem what a priest is, and the good he is called to do. Then make sure that you “watch and pray” as Christ told Peter. Take care that you don’t put yourself in temptation, that you protect your commitment to love Christ exclusively (readings, media, Internet, use of your time, mastery of your mind, self-discipline and sacrifice...); and pray - through Mary’s intercession, especially - for the grace of this love. Get to know Christ in prayer, learn from him the value of a single soul, see what he was prepared to do for us... etc... And especially read and accept all the Church teaches about the great gift and charism of celibacy.

Hope this helps. Be sure of my prayers. Fr Anthony

Q.Dear Fr Anthony,

When I was younger I was very sure of my vocation (to become a nun, a White Sister). I thought that God had called me to help African people from my faith in Him, my love and my hard work. But my parents were not accepting it. They told me I had to join an University (they told me that, maybe, if later I change my feeling I would have an exit). Now that I've finished my University, I have been in Computer Science (something I didn't like, because I wanted to know about medicine and infirmary) I have met a lot of boys, parties... Now I feel more material than some years ago... And I feel very bad because of it. Then I've been trying to go back to my first "call". I think that something that persists like it in my interior must be something important. But now I told my parents (my father isn't "very catholic" but my mother IS) they are very sad ( my mother even cried!!). My father because he wants to have grandchildren that give "permanence" to his last name. And my mother cried to me that I can't leave her now that she's "old", because she have take care of me all my life. Now I don't know if I must obey my parents "as the Bible say" and make them happy... or should I go to be a White Sister as I have dreamt of since I was a child (even if I've living this kind of "bad life" this past two years...)?

A.Dear Jane,

You have a very difficult decision ahead of you. It is not difficult to see what you should do, but it will be difficult to do it because of the attitude of your parents.

I will make several considerations.

Your parents got you to do university before following your vocation as a precaution, so you would have something to fall back on if your vocation did not work out, at least that is what they said at the time. Now they seem to be playing on your feelings.

Are you obliged to do as they say? You are obliged to "honor your father and your mother", but when a young woman gets married she "leaves her father and mother, and cleaves to her husband". It is the same with a vocation. There is no contradiction between these two things that the Scripture tells us. When you are a child, honoring your father and mother means obeying them; but when you grow up God expects you to do what he wants. He is our real father, and the only one with complete rights over us, and even he does not force our obedience.

But you do have to consider if you are really necessary for your parents' support in the future. If you have brothers and/or sisters your presence will not be indispensable; if they have normal insurance and savings, you will not have to be there for them to rely on. Barring some extraordinary circumstance it would seem you are not obliged to stay.

Now we come to another point: if you are prepared for religious life. You mention some "bad experiences" during these last two years. Since this may cover a wide spectrum of possibilities, rather than speculate I would encourage you to speak about this with someone you know and trust. I would suggest doing so with a priest in confession, tell him what you have gotten into, and ask him if what you have done would be an impediment to a vocation.

The fact that despite not feeling the same sureness, and realizing that you are more materialistic than when you first considered the vocation, you still recognize that the vocation persists and you want to give it its place is very significant. It means you are still spiritually sensitive and have a sense of what is truly important in life. If you have a vocation this will help you greatly in the difficulties you will encounter in following it. It is a very good basis to work from.

God bless. Fr Anthony

Preparatory Prayer:

"Lord, I believe in you: help me to believe more firmly.

I trust in you: help me to trust more surely.

I love you: help me to love you more ardently.

I want whatever you want, because you want it, the way you want it,

as long as you want it.

Lord, enlighten my mind, strengthen my will, purify my heart,

and sanctify my spirit.

Lord, in your goodness,

grant me the grace to love you

and forget myself,

to seek my neighbor's good

and despise the seduction of the world.

Teach me

how trivial worldly interests are, how momentous is the Kingdom, how brief temporal concerns are, how lasting is life eternal.

-(From the Universal Prayer of Pope Clement Xl)

Meditation

To Live For God:

The Theological Virtues

Petition:Mary, help me to pray. Increase my faith in Christ, your Son, my Redeemer and the Savior of all people. Increase my hope in the power of his grace working in my own soul and in the lives of all those who are

close to me, all those in some way entrusted to me. Help me to experience Christ's love during this meditation so that I can become his more ardent apostle, so that I may want only one thing in life: to help bring others to experience this same love.

Gospel Passage: John 14: I, 12-18

"Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me. ... Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going

to the Father. And whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, which the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows him. But you know him, because he remains with you, and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you." The "one and Triune God is the origin, motive, and object" of the theological virtues (Catechism 1812).

1. God is the origin, the only source, of our supernatural faith, hope, and love.

The theological virtues are a gift from God, the greatest gift imaginable. They enable us to share in God's very divine life. "Through these, he has bestowed on us the precious and very great promises, so that through them you may come to share in the divine nature" (2 Pet 1:4).

We cannot obtain the theological virtues by our human efforts. They are not like a project for a new Catholic school that we can develop and help make a reality through the sweat of our brow and some diligent fundraising efforts. Obviously even in this case God is the one at work behind the scenes, moving hearts and arranging circumstances.

So, when it comes to the theological virtues should we simply adopt a passive inaction and shrug of the shoulders? 'Either God gives them to us or he doesn't.' No. We must humbly and insistently ask God for faith, hope, and love in prayer. We can ask the Holy Spirit to help us exercise the theological virtues in the events of each day so that they will grow and take deep root in our souls, so they will become the oxygen we breathe when the air begins to grow thin in the arduous climb toward the heights of holiness. As grateful sons and daughters, we should also thank God with ever-renewed intensity for the gifts of faith, hope, and love. When Padre Pio set out to build a hospital for the poor on an empty green hillside in southern Italy, he asked a doctor whom he knew to be very compassionate to help him. It just so happened the doctor was an atheist. At one point during an intense conversation, as Padre Pio strove to convince him to help, the doctor exclaimed, "Enough of that! Don't you realize that I don't even believe in God?" Padre Pio paused for a long moment. Then he smiled and replied, "That's all right. You see, God believes in you." The doctor worked beside Padre Pio to build the hospital and alleviate human suffering. On one occasion the two of them were together near the building, surveying the landscape. The doctor told Padre Pio that the patients should be able to see more than a barren, rocky countryside when they looked out their windows. They should be able to gaze upon green pine trees. “How many trees do you want to plant?” Padre Pio Inquired. . The doctor responded, "Ten thousand"

“Today you have encountered God" Padre Pio told him, "For God is love." '

Even though he worked hand in hand with a saint nearly all his life, the Italian doctor died without ever formally accepting the faith without becoming a practicing Catholic We have to renew our thanks to

God each day for the gift of faith, a gift more precious than life itself.

2. God is the motive of our faith, hope and love.

Abraham, "our Father in faith," did not leave his homeland when he was already an old man because it seemed like the reasonable or natural thing to do. Rather, "hoping against hope, he believed, and thus became the father of many nations" (Rom 4:18).

Supernatural hope at times brings us to defy the norms of human prudence. Often we act; or rather we fail to act, chained down by fear and too great a reliance on ourselves, all under the comforting disguise of "prudence."

Was it prudent for a twenty-year-old seminarian to attempt to found a new religious congregation with a dozen youngsters in a borrowed basement - with no stable source of income, no influential friends or patrons, and not even sure how he himself would manage to finish his own Theological studies to be ordained a priest? At one point, feeling overwhelmed by what he had undertaken, the young seminarian knelt down in the makeshift chapel before Christ and opened the Bible, seeking strength. The following words from Psalm 37 met his eyes:

"Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act" (verse 5)

What would have become of God's chosen people if Abraham had not abandoned all human prudence and set forth upon the unknown journey of faith, guided only by a deep trust in God, a supernatural hope? How many thousands of priests and future priests would the Church lack today, had the young seminarian not lived so entirely by faith, hope, and love, that he was able to recognize God's design and surrender himself to it beyond all human expectations? Christ has entrusted a small portion of his Kingdom to each one of us. Let us ask him to help us throw off the limitations of false human prudence and strive valiantly to advance that Kingdom in ourselves and in those we are responsible for, guided by a deep theological hope.

3. God is the object of our faith, hope, and love.

We believe in God, our all-powerful Father, not in mere human reasoning. We hope in his love for us, in the power of his Holy Spirit at work in our lives, not in our own strength. We strive to love God in the depths of our heart and to love our neighbor out of love for him. "Hear, 0 Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone! Therefore, you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength" (Dt 6:4-5).

If we love someone simply for human motives, it is not yet supernatural charity. "When we love ourselves or our neighbor for any motive other than the goodness of God, we do not make an act of charity, but an act of natural human love, whether selfish or benevolent love. Purely human love as such is of no value in the supernatural order" (Jordan Aumann, Spiritual Theology, p. 266).

One of the best ways to grow in true theological love of God in our neighbor is by practicing universal charity. We naturally seem to get along better and feel more at home with some people than others, even among those who are closest to us. But we know that Christ is equally present in each person. He himself tells us, "Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me" (Mt 25:40).

Mother Teresa of Calcutta saw the suffering Christ in each person she helped. She radiated love and serene confidence; she undertook new works for the Church with audacity, because all of her actions were directed toward God. This great saint of our times reveals her secret in the following advice she offers others:

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and

self-centered.

Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies. Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you.

Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone may destroy overnight. Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, others may be jealous.

Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow.

Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may

never be enough.

Give the world the best you have anyway. Why? Because, in the final analysis, all of this is between you and God. It was never between you and them I anyway.

(Cited in Patrick Madrid, Search and Rescue, pp. 190-191)

Questionnaire:

1. Do I need to ask God for the gifts of faith, hope and love with greater intensity?

2. In what events of each day is God calling

me to exercise the theological virtues! more deeply?

3. What are the areas in my life where I need to be guided more by theological hope and the audacity of supernatural prudence, and less by human criteria?

4. With which persons do I particularly need to practice greater charity, loving and serving Christ in them, so that my love for others is truly universal, and not selective?

Dear young people, I now turn to you in a special way. You are in the marvelous stage of life, no doubt the most beautiful, when you have to lay the solid foundations on which you will build your life. You want to set a sure course for your life’s journey, and you avidly search for your happiness. You are going through the decisive stage of your journey, when you listen for and discern your call. What does God want of me? How can I find fulfillment and be happy? I guarantee you that you won’t find the answer outside of God’s will, away from Christ. Let Christ into your personal world, let him become your reference point for all your decisions. Open your heart to him. Seek to know and love him more each day (cf. no. 4).

Youth more than any other is the age of special generosity. Do not be afraid then to hear Christ’s voice inviting you to live consistently with your faith, to die to the world’s standards and to your own disordered passions so that he can reign in your heart. You are in Rome, the city that beheld the supreme testimony of faith and love given by thousands of our brothers and sisters who shed their blood for Christ during the first centuries. Today is your turn to repeat their same gesture of heroic fidelity, not now in the arena of a Roman circus, but in the modern “coliseums” of your cities, in your universities and places of work, and where you relax and enjoy yourself. Nowhere can be left outside Christ’s influence. Give witness to him with your actions and your words. Be proud to be a Christian and to behave like one. Do not be afraid to say, “yes” to Christ, because only then will you also be saying “yes” to your most noble ideals.

But most of all be courageous and generous enough to leave everything and follow Christ if you hear his voice say to you, as he said to the first disciples in the Gospel, “follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” (Mt. 4:18-23). Rejoice and give God thanks for choosing so sublime a gift for you.

Priests are Christ's hands, his feet, his eyes, his mind and his heart; they are the channels and the means through which he is going to give himself to humanity. Through his priests, he will show people how much he loves them and how much he wants to be loved by them. Through them, he will make known his mercies. Through them, he will sow the peace that the angels announced from the day of his birth, when they sang above his cradle promising this peace to men of good will. Through them, he will make brother of all nations, all races, and all social classes, wiping out all envy and hatred, uniting all people in a single heart and a single spirit in his divine Heart.

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