Year III, Number 40

"You are the salt of the earth! You are the light of the world!" (Mt 5:13-14)

Dear Young People of the Seventeenth World Youth Day,

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

On a hillside near the lake of Galilee, Jesus' disciples listened to his gentle and urgent voice; as gentle as the landscape of Galilee itself, as urgent as a call to choose between life and death, between truth and falsehood. The Lord spoke words of life that would echo for ever in the hearts of his followers.

Today he is speaking the same words to you, the young people of Toronto and Ontario, of the whole of Canada, of the United States, of the Caribbean, of Spanish-speaking America and Portuguese-speaking America, of Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania. Listen to the voice of Jesus in the depths of your hearts! His words tell you who you are as Christians. They tell you what you must do to remain in his love.

But Jesus offers one thing, and the "spirit of the world" offers another. In today's Reading from the Letter to the Ephesians, Saint Paul tells us that Jesus leads us from darkness into light (cf. Eph 5:8). Perhaps the great Apostle is thinking of the light that blinded him, the persecutor of Christians, on the road to Damascus. When later he recovered his sight, nothing was as before. He had been born anew and nothing would ever take his new-found joy away from him.

You too are called to be transformed. "Awake, O sleeper, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light" (Eph 5:14), says Saint Paul.

The "spirit of the world" offers many false illusions and parodies of happiness. There is perhaps no darkness deeper than the darkness that enters young people's souls when false prophets extinguish in them the light of faith and hope and love. The greatest deception, and the deepest source of unhappiness, is the illusion of finding life by excluding God, of finding freedom by excluding moral truths and personal responsibility...

Q. Dear Fr. Bannon,

I have been thinking about the priesthood for a while now, ever since the sixth grade. Lately, the way things are going is a bit confusing right now, and I think my vocation is getting a bit dimmer as the confusion gets worse. My problem is this: I want to be a priest and everything in my life has lead me to the point where the priesthood is the place for me, yet I am easily attracted and stay attracted to girls. I was wondering if this was common or something which could be hinting to me NOT being called to the priesthood? Any help, advice and the like would be most appreciated.

In Christ, Jo

A. Dear Jo,

I see nothing more normal than an attraction to girls in a young man. Even though God gave us this for a very good reason and it is part of his plan, it is nevertheless a drive that has to be mastered, whether you are called to the priesthood or the married life. What I mean is this: it is part of God’s original plan, but we have a fallen nature and it is not easy to follow God’s will in this regard. We have to master our imagination, instincts and desires so as to be faithful to what God wants. The way to master your heart and the drive to love in our life, is to choose whom you are going to love, and put all our energies into loving that person.

This might sound strange, to choose whom you are going to love. Yes, attraction happens, but we decide to love. Love costs. A man who marries tells his bride he will love her for richer or poorer, for better or worse. In essence he says, even though someone more attractive might cross my path I am only for you; even though everything does not work out like a dream I will be faithful to you; count on me.

The secret to the heart of a priest, and the reason he can choose celibacy is because he chooses to love Christ, to love the Church, to love souls in a very particular way - with absolute dedication. And because he has made this love-choice, even if someone attractive comes along, even if things do not work out like a dream, he too is faithful. He knows what he has done, and he reaffirms the choice to love Christ when difficulties arise, and even when they don't.

So I think your attraction is normal. What remains now if you are called to the priesthood is to set your heart to love Christ and center your mind to know him and do his work. Increase your love in prayer. Strengthen your spirit so you can be master of your choices and actions. Don’t expect attractions to go away, but pay more attention to what you have chosen.

God bless. Fr Anthony

Q. Dear Fr. Anthony

I am a 17-year-old teen. I have had my calling since I was 12. I had an amazing priest tell me once that he knew I was going to be a priest and that one day I would get such a calling. I have had this calling. My question is: I have not graduated high school, and I don’t do well in school; do I need my high school diploma and other courses to enter the seminary? At what age I can do so?

Daniel

A. Dear Daniel,

You will certainly need to have your high school diploma in order to enter a seminary and study directly for the priesthood. If you struggle in school you should keep at it, and offer up your efforts to God each day. Studies are necessary but not the most important part of becoming a priest. It is more important that you be a good person, honest, holy, hardworking, charitable, and especially that you love Christ very personally.

Normally you can enter a college seminary right after high school, but this depends on the diocese or religious order you want to join. So, if you want to be a priest in your home diocese speak to the vocation director to see what he recommends, or if you are interested in a religious order get in touch with them for the same reason.

God bless. Fr Anthony

“He chose us before the foundation of the world . . . ” (Eph. 1:4)

At the origin of our lives, we encounter God’s infinite and all-powerful love: pronouncing our name long before our parents ever did he called us into existence: “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you.” (Jer. 1:5). In other words, we ourselves did not choose to live nor were we entitled to it, for we didn’t even have an opportunity to do something to provoke his love. We exist simply because Someone wanted us and continues to sustain us, because Someone has loved us gratuitously and forever.

Every man and woman, therefore, created in the image and likeness of God, bears as it were God’s fingerprint. In the words of the Holy Father, “love is the DNA of God’s children” (cf. Holy Father's message for the 2001 World Day of Vocations, no. 2). Man’s greatness and deepest dignity lies precisely in God’s personal love for him. Man has an absolute value because he is the only creature that God loves in itself (cf. Vatican II, Gaudium et spes, 24). From the very first moment of his conception, man’s history becomes sacred history, a vital time-span for an uninterrupted and intimate dialogue of love with God (cf. no. 1).

“ ...to be holy and without blemish before him. In love he destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ, in accord with the favor of his will...”

Since our life consists in this intimate dialogue of love with God, we can see that it will be fulfilling and happy only inasmuch as we fulfill what God intended from all eternity – to the extent in other words that we live our fundamental vocational to love. Love: this is the great project of our life, our most important undertaking, the highest vocation that sums up all the rest. For us who are Christians, the love which is our way, truth and life is not a vague ideal or philanthropic project but rather has a very real face, it is a person – Jesus Christ.

Yes, my dear friends, we have been created to be holy and without blemish in love. Holiness, to be like Christ, is our Christian life-project. We discover in him the model of perfect humanity, of love perfected in self-surrender and sincere giving of ourselves to others.

To love is to fulfill his commandments (cf. Jn. 14:21-24; I Jn. 2:3-6). To love is to follow always the concrete and objective path of God’s will in my life, a path that is often made narrow and uphill by the weight of the cross (cf. Lk. 13:24; Mk 8:31-38). To love God is to love him in all people, our brothers and sisters, since this is the essence of following Christ, the distinctive mark of his disciples (cf. Jn. 13:34-35) and the ultimate test of the authenticity of our love (cf. I Jn. 4:20-21).

Gospel passage: Matthew 12: 14-21

But the Pharisees went out and took counsel against him to put him to death. When Jesus realized this, he withdrew from that place. Many (people) followed him, and he cured them all, but he warned them not to make him known. This was to fulfill what had been spoken through Isaiah the prophet: "Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved in whom I delight; I shall place my spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. He will not contend or cry out, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, a smoldering wick he will not quench, until he brings justice to victory. And in his name the Gentiles will hope."

Introductory Prayer: Lord, a thousand distractions assail me; a thousand problems fill my thoughts; and yet is there anything more important that I could be doing right now than being with you, my source of life and my final goal?

Petition: Lord, may I always be ready to give the reason for the hope that is in me (1 Peter 3:15).

1. "And in his name the Gentiles will hope."

What is the foundation of our hope? Pope John Paul II, speaking on October 31, 2001 in the Vatican, borrowed language from the theatre, a passion of his youth, to present God as the "mysterious and invisible director" who moves "behind the scenes" in human history. "The certainty of the providential action of God is a source of hope for the believer, who knows he can count on his constant presence. No thought can encompass him. Man can only contemplate his presence, prostrating himself in adoration in praise, by discerning his imprint in the universe. God intervenes in history, even if it is not immediately apparent. It might be said that he is ´behind the scenes.´ He is the mysterious and invisible director who respects the liberty of his creatures, but at the same time holds the thread of the world´s events. Herein lies the hope of the believer. In fact, the creative act is not an episode that is lost in the night of time, as if the world, after that beginning, should consider itself abandoned to itself. God constantly brings into being the creation that came from his hands. By definition, God is the only One. Nothing can compare to him. Everything is subordinated to him."

2. "A bruised reed he will not break, a smouldering wick he will not quench."

God has revealed himself in Christ as he who will not break the bruised reed nor quench the smouldering wick. He is the God who "wants all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim 2:4). Because he is true God and true man, he alone can accomplish our salvation:

"Nevertheless, I know that my God took upon himself flesh like unto my own: He lived, he suffered, and he died just as I do and shall. Yet he is not wholly like me, for did he not rise again after death, did he not rise of his own power? It is because he did so rise, and because I know it with entire certainty, that the hope of salvation swells up in my soul. It is through the Son, God in man made manifest, that I shall, one day, know the Father in the dazzling clarity of the Spirit" (Henri-Daniel Rops, The Mass).

Prayer: May hope not be the orphan virtue of my life. Heavenly Father, may it be the virtue that burns unceasingly, like the tabernacle lamp, in the inner depths of my heart, witnessing to my trust that nothing and no one can ever separate me from your love. Amen.

Questionnaire:

1. Knowing the need that today's secularized world has for radiant witnesses to eternal life, do I ask Christ for the grace to trust in him completely? Is my general outlook on life permeated with faith and hope?

2. Do I harbor any trace of bitterness or sadness? What do I do to increase my trust in God during the day?

3. Do I take advantage of opportunities to bolster the hope of those around me? Am I able to offer those who suffer a convinced word of comfort and hope? Do I pray for them?

Two things never cease to amaze me: the vastness and beauty of a starry sky and the voice of God echoing in the depths of the human heart. God addresses us in the wonderful book of creation, and we also discover him in the sanctuary of our conscience - in the immensity that transcends us, and in the innermost reaches of our interior, which are also beyond our grasp: "higher than my highest and more inward than my innermost self," in the words of Saint Augustine. A vocation is God's mysterious revelation to an individual made from dust like every one else, giving him a mission that far exceeds his strength. It is Love who calls, and invites us to love and to spread love.

I always honored, as pertaining to the world of the sacred, those men and women who listened to the voice of God in their interior and dedicated their lives to him and to his Kingdom. But when Christ's call suddenly and unexpectedly burst into my life - a simple but powerful "Follow me" - I understood that the mystery that surrounds the vocation is the very mystery which is the pulse of the universe: the mystery of love which, in Dante's words, moves the sun and the stars. And not only the sun and the stars, but also human freedom.

Every vocation to the priesthood or consecrated life is a unique, never-to-be-repeated poem of love. It is a heart-to-heart dialogue between a free creature and his Creator who calls him to prolong in the world the mystery of the Incarnation, becoming "another Christ" for humanity. Christ will take possession of this man, who, without ceasing to be clay, carries the treasure of God's love and offers it to the world.

Yet though we can see people's great need for God's love - God himself - we find that there are few, very few laborers for the Lord's harvest. What can we do? Where can they be found? They are there in families, schools, universities, and youth groups, but first of all we must pray to the Lord of the harvest to send workers to his vineyard. Many Christians take the Lord's command seriously and meet together to ask Christ in the Eucharist for this gift. And the Lord is not outdone in generosity; he gives in abundance. We only have to ask him for it.

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, November 27 - December 1, Test Your Call! retreat. Contact Br Branigan Sherman, (800) 420-5409. vocation@legionaries.org

Cheshire, CT, December 26-30, Test Your Call! retreat. Contact Br Branigan Sherman, (800) 420-5409. vocation@legionaries.org

REGNUM CHRISTI consecrated women

Houston, TX, November 15-17. Young Women's Spiritual Growth Retreat. Ages 16-30. Contact Mary Beth Philipp, (281) 361-6708. jphilipp@familink.com

Atlanta, GA, December 2. Young Women's Christmas Retreat. Ages 17-30. Contact Dori Donahue, (770) 417-1045. ddonahue@inteducators.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.

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