Year III, Number 33

In the Church's tradition religious profession is considered to be a special and fruitful deepening of the consecration received in Baptism, inasmuch as it is the means by which the close union with Christ already begun in Baptism develops in the gift of a fuller, more explicit and authentic configuration to him through the profession of the evangelical counsels. This further consecration, however, differs in a special way from baptismal consecration, of which it is not a necessary consequence. In fact, all those reborn in Christ are called to live out, with the strength which is the Spirit's gift, the chastity appropriate to their state of life, obedience to God and to the Church, and a reasonable detachment from material possessions: for all are called to holiness, which consists in the perfection of love. But Baptism in itself does not include the call to celibacy or virginity, the renunciation of possessions or obedience to a superior, in the form proper to the evangelical counsels. The profession of the evangelical counsels thus presupposes a particular gift of God not given to everyone, as Jesus himself emphasizes with respect to voluntary celibacy (cf. Mt 19:10-12). This call is accompanied, moreover, by a specific gift of the Holy Spirit, so that consecrated persons can respond to their vocation and mission. For this reason, as the liturgies of the East and West testify in the rite of monastic or religious profession and in the consecration of virgins, the Church invokes the gift of the Holy Spirit upon those who have been chosen and joins their oblation to the sacrifice of Christ. The profession of the evangelical counsels is also a development of the grace of the Sacrament of Confirmation, but it goes beyond the ordinary demands of the consecration received in Confirmation by virtue of a special gift of the Spirit which opens the way to new possibilities and fruits of holiness and apostolic work. This can clearly be seen from the history of the consecrated life. As for priests who profess the evangelical counsels, experience itself shows that the Sacrament of Holy Orders finds a particular fruitfulness in this consecration, inasmuch as it requires and fosters a closer union with the Lord. The priest who professes the evangelical counsels is especially favoured in that he reproduces in his life the fullness of the mystery of Christ, thanks also to the specific spirituality of his Institute and the apostolic dimension of its proper charism. In the priest, in fact, the vocation to the priesthood and the vocation to the consecrated life converge in a profound and dynamic unity. Also of immeasurable value is the contribution made to the Church's life by religious priests completely devoted to contemplation. Especially in the celebration of the Eucharist they carry out an act of the Church and for the Church, to which they join the offering of themselves, in communion with Christ who offers himself to the Father for the salvation of the whole world.

Q. Dear Fr Bannon,

In a book I am reading it is suggested that as part of the discernment process one develop a "Rule of Life.” This is defined as a daily, weekly, and monthly schedule in which you set aside specific times for prayer, study, work, meals, exercise, recreation, reading, and other priorities. Could you offer any advice as to how I would go about doing this? In Christ, Dan

A. Dear Dan,

A ‘Rule of Life’ is a very practical way of ordering your life; as a matter of fact it is just a religious name for time management which also takes into account your spiritual growth, and I would not limit its usefulness only to vocational discernment - it is a great way to get a handle on your life. The best way to do it is to take pen to paper. Get yourself a notebook just for this and list in it your priorities, the things you really want to do in each area of your life, the things that are most important for you. List also the problem areas: your time wasters (Internet, phone, TV...), your weaknesses (like inconstancy, impatience, weak in peer-pressure situations, etc.), the things you are sorry you did afterwards, etc. You need to state your goals and list the means to achieve them. The great thing about writing it down is that it makes you be very clear and concrete.

When you have done this, the next step is the distribution of your time. I will only mention some generalities. If you have someone who knows you and you trust that you can talk these things over with, it would be good to get more concrete help from him. As regards your spiritual life, look at the goals you have set for yourself (for example: steady life of grace, openness to what God wants, etc.) and then the means (for example: more frequent confession, more personal discipline, more frequent Communion, etc.), and then see how you are going to fit each one in your day and week (when confession is available, time of day I can go to Mass, the prayer I need to do each day, etc.). Your friend can help you here to see you are not trying to do too much too soon, and that you are not doing too little too late, either. Then look at your duties (studies, work, health, your obligations towards your parents, etc.), your goals and needs and how you spread them out over your week. Then look at what you want to do for others (teach catechism, coach younger kids, boy-scouts, altar-servers, meals on wheels...). As regards your vocation, I would recommend you gather the information you need, make sure you set some time for a retreat, plan on visiting the places you are interested in, take care of obstacles (work to clear up your debts, for example), look into the practical implications (when the entrance date is, the application process...). It is relatively simple to set deadlines on a calendar (one that you will see).

David, I hope this is helpful. It usually doesn’t work out perfectly the first time, but as you try to do it you will get to know yourself and will improve. There seem to be some people who are just more organized than the rest of us. If you have a friend like that enlist his help.

One final, very important thing: once you make a rule of life you have to post it somewhere and set a time every day that you are going to check it. I suggest it not be somewhere too visible because then you get used to it and never really see it anymore even though it’s there in front of you. Try the back of the door of a closet. Set a time (usually good first thing in the morning) to check on what you have to do today, and then one (usually towards the night) to see how you did. You can include that in a short daily examination of conscience.

God bless. Fr Anthony

Q. Hi. How do you know when it is the right time to start discerning something? What do you do when one day you think that yes, it is the time, and then the next day you think maybe it isn't? Are you ever completely sure? Please help. Thanks for your time. Jenn

A. Dear Jenn,

It is always OK to start discerning, because by discerning we usually mean to look into what God wants us to do. So it is always good to ask ourselves that question. What is a little more difficult to tell is when you have gotten an answer, what it actually is, and if it is the right time to act on it.

It is OK at any age to ask if God is calling you to give your life to him. You can ask yourself the question even if there is no possibility of you doing it right away, and there is no urgency to it. It is always good to get help from someone if you can when you are discerning. If you are at a stage in which you can take a step, then you really need to ask yourself the question and look for an answer. It is very normal to have wide swings when we are discerning a vocation, because we often go on our feelings - and one day we feel there is nothing we would like more than to be a priest or nun, and the next day all we want is a family, and maybe the day afterwards we don’t even feel like taking on the responsibility of a family and just want to be free and have a good time. That’s why even though we tend to make discernment a thing of our feelings, we should go much deeper than that. We have to make sure our discernment is really the attempt to get all the hints that God is giving me about what HE would like me to do with my life, how I fit into his plan to bring as many people as possible to the happiness of knowing him in this life and possessing him in heaven.

As to the answer you get, it will never be mathematically absolute. Even when all the correct signs for a vocation are there, there will always be some uncertainty until you try it and have it confirmed by someone who speaks for the Church in accepting you and validating your vocation (Bishop, religious superior). And they can’t accept you until they get to know you and see how you do when you try to follow it. So once you discern you have to be ready to take the plunge.

God bless. Fr Anthony

INTRODUCTION

Perhaps it is easy to be faithful when things are going our way, when we are not being tested and our faith in God is not tried. We long for the times when everything in our lives is perfectly ordered and calm, when nothing perturbs us and there is no anxiety. But true faith is always put to the test, and like the branch that bears fruit, the Lord will prune it to make it bear even more.

Mary was a woman who had to walk in faith on her journey through life, and the Lord would also test her faith to make it stronger and purer.

I. THE SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENTS

MT. 2: 16-18

How Mary must have wept as she reflected on the innocent children massacred by Herod in his effort to kill the new born King of the Jews! Imagine her grief as she and Joseph fled with the baby safe in her arms, toward the land of Egypt. It was a trail of tears from the land of Bethlehem all the way into the foreign country to which they were exiled.

Again it is Mary who contemplates in her heart the meaning of all these events and recognizes them as the painful working out of God's plan for the salvation of the world. Here the sword Simeon prophesied suddenly became brutally real and terrifying. Mary began to understand that fidelity to God has a price.

2. THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT

MT. 2: 13-15

Mary and Joseph obeyed the voice of the Holy Spirit in the angel's message. It meant that all their own plans were suddenly turned upside down. They would need to abandon all their own thoughts and allow themselves to be led by him. They would go wherever he sent them, and now it was Egypt, the land from which God called Moses to lead his people from slavery.

They would remain there until the Spirit manifested his will once more. Only then would they attempt to return to their home.

Mary and Joseph were perfectly docile to what God wanted of them, and they set aside their personal plans and hopes in their attempt to please God in all.

3. THE FINDING OF JESUS IN THE TEMPLE LK. 2: 41-52

In this passage, we can clearly feel the anguish and panic of Mary and Joseph in their frantic search for Jesus. Feelings of confusion mixed with guilt and sorrow tore at their hearts as they searched helplessly for him.

And finally when they do find him, they find his words mysterious. "Why do you search for me? Did you not realize... ?" There was something now about Jesus they could not entirely grasp, or control, or even begin to understand. In verse 50 we are told they "did not understand" what he meant. From this point forward, there would always be something beyond their grasp about Jesus, an inner core they could not fully share. Now he was preparing himself for his mission, and Mary and Joseph could only stand at a distance and observe with faith and hope and love the mystery unfolding before their eyes. They needed to submit themselves to a mystery they could no longer understand, if in fact they ever felt they did.

4. THE CRUCIFIXION OF JESUS

JN. 19

This is the moment of sorrow beyond all sorrows in human history, and Mary is there at the center of it. Now she realizes the full force of the prophetic words of Simeon and begins to understand more fully the meaning of all the events of her life. She is called to share fully in Jesus' suffering and by doing so to share in his salvific work. She stood at the foot of the Cross, faithful to the end, accepting what the Heavenly Father wanted of her.

QUESTIONNAIRE:

1. Do I grow more faithful when I face obstacles and setbacks in my faith? Or do I tend to pull back and complain to God?

2. How do I bear suffering? Do I see it as God's way of uniting us more closely with the sufferings of Jesus? Do I embrace it with joy and offer it for souls?

3. Am I willing to pay the price of my fidelity to the Lord and accept misunderstanding, rejection, and even persecution?

4. How open am I to God's plan for my life? If my plans don't coincide with his, am I generous enough to change mine?

Just as he did with the leper in the Gospel, Christ also requires a human and ecclesial mediation in our path of conversion and interior purification: “Go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed; that will be proof for them” (Mk 1:40-45). We need to hear Christ’s words from the lips of an authoritative person: “Go and from now on do not sin any more” (Jn 8:11), “your sins are forgiven” (Mk 2:5). No one can be simultaneously judge, witness and defendant in his own cause. No one can absolve himself and sincerely be at peace. The sacramental framework responds also to this human need that we experience every day.

In this regard, the words that the priest says as he gives absolution acquire a remarkable realism: “God the Father of mercies through the death and resurrection of his Son has reconciled the world to himself and sent the Holy Spirit among you for the forgiveness of sins; through the ministry of the Church may God give you pardon and peace.” It is at that very moment, when God’s forgiveness truly wipes out our sin, that in his eyes it ceases to exist. Only then does true peace well up in our hearts, a peace the world can never give, because it does not have it to give, for the world does not know the Lord of peace (see Jn 14:27).

Lord Jesus, I have waited a long time for this moment. I have needed time to speak with you alone and especially to listen to you. The truth, to be honest, is that you do not stop sending me messages.

The problem is that I do not always want to receive them. At times I drown them out with music, friends, noise... Nonetheless, I cannot deny it — I feel a great emptiness, even though it doesn't show with others. Yet then, when your calm invitation “Follow me” comes, my heart overflows with light and peace. As soon as I hear this invitation in the depths of my conscience, my heart trembles at the thought that you have chosen me from among hundreds and thousands of young people.

But why, Lord? Why me? What is special about me that you would call me to follow you as your chosen apostle? Then the calling of your first disciples comes to mind and I tell myself, “And what was so special about Peter, James, John, and Andrew...? Weren't they men like everyone else? Weren't they sinners like everyone else? Weren't they weak, traitorous and cowardly like everyone else? Yet you chose them: “You did not choose me, no, I chose you.”

It amazes me to think that these poor fishermen from the Sea of Tiberius did not hesitate to leave on the shore, dead forever, the nets that represented their whole life. And I find it so hard to leave my family, the comforts of home, my girlfriend’s (boyfriend's) attachment, my career prospects, my personal plans, my freedom... But on the other hand you also attract me and you attract me with a special force since you are much more than any person or thing in this world. Your personality, your generosity to the extreme, your tenderness toward us, the gentleness of your heart, and the greatness of your Kingdom all attract me.

I know I will find true happiness at your side; I know you will quench my thirst for eternity, and that with you I will leave a permanent mark as I pass through this world, doing good in your name. But I am afraid. It frightens me to set out on an adventure where I risk everything, even though I know I can also gain everything.

Lord, grant me generosity to throw myself after you without hesitation, to cut the moorings that bind me to the shore and keep me from pulling out into the sea of the world with you as the captain of my ship. Give me courage, give me strength. I know I will not have visions, apparitions, or anything of the kind. Yet your voice will not cease to call within my soul with a clarity that leaves no room for doubts; “Follow me” will be your invitation.

I will follow you, Lord. I will follow you wherever you go, and wherever you take me. I will go with you, carrying my cross and rising with you in order to save the world. Only three things I ask of you: grant me faith, grant me generosity, grant me courage; in a word, grant me love.

Upcoming Events & Retreats

(( Listed here are retreats directed by the Legionaries of Christ and Regnum Christi members. For a listing of diocesan activities and other events, click here to go to the vocation.com website ))

LEGIONARIES OF CHRIST

Cheshire, CT, October 18-20, Test Your Call! retreat. Contact Br Branigan Sherman, (800) 420-5409. vocation@legionaries.org

REGNUM CHRISTI consecrated men

Call Tony McDonnell for more information, (301) 365-3205. info@ytm.org

ShoreLines welcomes your questions and comments at questions@shorelines.org. If you do not specify otherwise, your question may be posted in the Vocations Q&A section.

To subscribe or send a gift subscription, send an email to subscribe@shorelines.org or visit www.vocation.com. To unsubscribe, send an email to unsubscribe@shorelines.org.

Copyright 2004, Legion of Christ.

www.vocation.com