Year IV, Number 34

In the Church and on behalf of the Church, priests are a sacramental representation of Jesus Christ - the head and shepherd - authoritatively proclaiming his word, repeating his acts of forgiveness and his offer of salvation - particularly in baptism, penance and the Eucharist, showing his loving concern to the point of a total gift of self for the flock, which they gather into unity and lead to the Father through Christ and in the Spirit. In a word, priests exist and act in order to proclaim the Gospel to the world and to build up the Church in the name and person of Christ the head and shepherd.

This is the ordinary and proper way in which ordained ministers share in the one priesthood of Christ. By the sacramental anointing of holy orders, the Holy Spirit configures them in a new and special way to Jesus Christ the head and shepherd; he forms and strengthens them with his pastoral charity; and he gives them an authoritative role in the Church as servants of the proclamation of the Gospel to every people and of the fullness of Christian life of all the baptized.

The truth of the priest as it emerges from the Word of God, that is, from Jesus Christ himself and from his constitutive plan for the Church, is thus proclaimed with joyful gratitude by the Preface of the liturgy of the Chrism Mass: “By your Holy Spirit you anointed your only Son high priest of the new and eternal covenant. With wisdom and love you have planned that this one priesthood should continue in the Church. Christ gives the dignity of a royal priesthood to the people he has made his own. From these, with a brother’s love, he chooses men to share his sacred ministry by the laying on of hands. He appointed them to renew in his name the sacrifice of redemption as they set before your family his paschal meal. He calls them to lead your holy people in love, nourish them by your word and strengthen them through the sacraments. Father, they are to give their lives in your service and for the salvation of your people as they strive to grow in the likeness of Christ and honor you by their courageous witness of faith and love.”

Q. Dear Fr Anthony,

I’m a current college student who is really having trouble discerning my vocation. I’m very happy at school, but I sometimes feel that I need to be doing more for God, therefore thinking less of my own desires. I spend much of my time with other good Christians and in front of the Blessed Sacrament. I’ve thought about being a priest on a number of occasions because I know that I could bring many souls to Christ. On the other hand, I feel a great attraction to the married life. I find it quite hard to distinguish my own wants and desires from that of the Lord’s. My spiritual director isn’t really helping that much, so any advice would be great! Thank you!

- Danny

A. Dear Danny,

Just going on what you write, it would seem that “something is definitely happening”. You have good friends, you pray, your prayer leads you to question if you are doing all you could for God, when you think of the priesthood your motives are spiritual, and you feel a great attraction to the married life. This all seems to reflect a normal, healthy approach, with a sincere openness to God’s will without false illusions as to what it would entail and, most comforting of all, it does not seem to be a passing emotional high.

Two things I think you could do: one, shift a little the focus of your prayer. Put yourself totally in God’s hands – tell him that you want whatever he wants and you trust totally that he is worth more than any other love you could have in your life. Two: start doing something concrete. Look into the priesthood actively, either your diocese or some religious order that God has placed in your path. It is in looking into it, visiting, going on retreats, or doing volunteer service with some particular group that you will give God a chance to give you some more signs as to which way to go.

Please get back to me if I can do anything else for you or if you want me to put you in contact with some people. God bless.

- Fr Anthony

Q. Dear Fr Anthony,

Hi, Father. My name is Laura, and I am 18 years old, about to begin my second semester of college. I have been thinking about the religious life for almost a year and a half, and now I am almost sure (but not completely) that God is calling me to be a nun. I even know the community I want to enter. Anyway, I’ve told my parents about three times now, and they are very upset about it. They say they really want me to finish college first, but they also hint to me that they don’t want me to be a nun at all. I don’t want to disappoint them, but I don’t want to disappoint God more. Anyway, over the summer I like to do volunteer work with this community, but my parents say I have two choices: get a job and not help the Sisters at all, or if I want to help them, I am just going to have to live with them and enter in September, which they will not come see or even visit me during the postulancy. I don’t know what to do! I am thinking of entering in September, but I’m not sure if God wants me to enter this year or to wait. Can you help me? Thank you so much, and God bless!

- Laura

A. Dear Laura,

You know now where your parents stand, and that apparently part of their reason for not wanting you to enter now is that they don’t want you to enter at all. This means that, even if they have other prudential reasons against your timing, there is a basic question here that does not have an immediate solution. Nevertheless, you should first ask them why. They may have something important to say to you.

Then you need to see with the nuns you are thinking of joining if they can see any reason for you not to join now. If they don’t, and if the reasons your parents give are not substantial, I would tend to say that now is the time.

God bless.

- Fr Anthony

...[I]t is absolutely necessary that the person discerning have a basic attitude of generosity, wanting to be generous with God, not wanting to haggle with him over the crumbs of my life. In my experience discernment comes much more easily to those who are generous with God, and these have the necessary foundation to succeed in their vocations. Conversely, those who are miserly with God, drawing up long lists of all the things they have to give up in the world to follow Christ, more likely than not will end up like the rich young man in the Gospel, going their own way without ever plucking up the courage to take on the adventure of following Christ. Generosity is not blindness. We’re not saying to go ahead if your intelligence enlightened by faith fails to perceive God’s call. Generosity is a disposition of the soul that moves you to throw yourself totally into God’s hands because you know they are powerful, loving, provident and fatherly hands, and because you know that God is asking you to take that path.

Generosity is the basic attitude, but the whole choice has to be made in a climate of prayer. It is impossible to be able to discern your vocation correctly if you are not drawing close to God through prayer and the sacraments. You have to pray, insist, beg, knock, because God’s ways are very many. Some perceive their vocation like an arrow of love: In a special instant of grace they perceive with clarity beyond doubt that God is calling them. It is more difficult for others. They need to think it over more, they have to exert more their faith, intelligence and will. Much depends on the makeup of your character, but also on the myriads of ways that grace acts.

The important thing is to be able to find God’s will and follow it with all your heart. Never part ways with God’s will. What I’m saying is true for marriage as well. How often people make the wrong choice in choosing a spouse because they simply didn’t pray, it was a human choice that didn’t at all take into account the Lord’s will! If God’s path for me is the priesthood I’ll head right for it, because I know that not only will I please God but also I will find my own happiness and help many others find theirs.

Gospel: Mk 7 : 5-8, 14, 15, 21-23

And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with hands defiled?” And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’ You leave the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of men.”

And he called the people to him again, and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a man which by going into him can defile him; but the things which come out of a man are what defile him.” For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, fornication, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a man.”

Introductory Prayer: Lord, increase my faith that I might know you; increase my hope that you might lead me; increase my love, that it might transform me from the inside, from my heart, that I might love you as you deserve.

Petition: My Lord and my God, give me the gift of knowledge and humility, that I might especially judge myself correctly and give you what is only good and pure.

1. The Judges

The question that the Pharisees ask is a veiled insult to Christ. They say, “Your disciples (with the emphasis on the “your”) do such and such a thing.” Christ reads their hearts and finds them far from him. This distresses him, not because he dislikes the Pharisees, but because he wants their hearts. They are the leaders of Israel, and he wants them to observe true worship, not an exterior worship with a heart far away from him. It is easy to judge others by the wrong standards, especially since we only see the exterior. God knows the heart. That is what is important to him. We need to give the gift of our heart to God, that does not perfect God, but it does perfect us. It is what we were made to do.

2. What is our Heart?

Our heart, spiritually speaking, is the part of us that is capable of love. Not feelings - we can love someone who even makes us feel bad, or sad, or even angry. The heart loves by putting itself totally at the service of that person or thing. It gives itself. Sin is caused by the disorder of love. The central commandment of the law, Christ says, is to love God with all your heart, all your mind, and all your strength. Second comes, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” We can love other persons and even things, but only in a correct order. Christ goes on to say that it is in fact the disordered loves that defile a man. It is easy to get distracted by other loves and forget about God even while we put on a good show exteriorly. A good sign of where your heart is manifests itself in where the mind is. If the mind lingers on different immoral things and the heart is lead to action by it, the person is defiled.

3. Understand God

He called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand.” Jesus wants us to understand that we need to form our heart so that its fruits are acts of self-giving to God. God is a person, not just a thought; though we pray using our mind, our heart makes our relationship with God real and our actions follow the heart’s lead. God sanctifies us; our actions make that sanctity visible. Authenticity demands good thoughts that should lead to purity, respect for others, care for the weak, faithfulness, generosity, goodness, honesty, self-control, honoring others, and wisdom. All these come from the heart and make a man worthy.

Dialogue: Lord, send the your light into my heart, that I fall in love with you. Prune me of false loves so that I might live for you alone. So many times I walk in darkness because I live for myself and not your kingdom. Transform me that your light shine on the world as you did in your great charity toward men. Help me to understand that I might use my freedom in many ways to show the world I love you from my heart.

Questionnaire:

1. Where is my heart? Is it close to God or far away from him, in things that I love? Do I put on a show, or am I authentic?

2. Do I practice love of God interiorly? Do I speak to him as the best of friends, do I think of his interests, his projects, and the needs of his people?

3. What are the fruits that come out from my heart and mind? Do my good thoughts and words, thoughtfulness, generosity, and wisdom show that I live my Christian calling coherently?

Self-knowledge

We have a certain amount of self-knowledge, but in order to be sure we are not deluded, we need the benefit of an outsider’s objectivity. We need:

Spiritual direction

We have to run by somebody else, someone we trust, our thoughts and experiences. And then heed his advice.

Signs?

We need them, but most especially we need to recognize the ones we already have. This means:

Acceptance of the ordinary

There is a certain compulsion afoot to go seeking for extraordinary signs and experiences. Here are some of the ordinary ones that we risk missing, and are more compelling: the fact that you are thinking about a vocation; your personal spiritual journey and experience; God’s providence in your life (from the gift of life itself, to the circumstances in which you have had to live it; the blessings God gave you; the trials he allowed you to go through…), all of these mark us and show us the path God has been nudging us along.

Shake off the skepticism

Idealism is no longer kosher. That’s no wonder in an era that has reduced love to sex and happiness to self-indulgence.

To discover your vocation and accept it you must dream and hope at least as much as the young man and woman who are getting married. You have to dream even more.

To discern a vocation you have to loosen the ties that bind us to the merely pragmatic, the distrust that our society breeds in us. You have to believe in a dimension of life and of people that is not tangible - the dimension of the spirit, the thirst for goodness and truth there in each one’s soul, untapped and unsatisfied.

You have to believe enthusiastically that Christ is more necessary to your fellowmen than the new boat, the second house, the third car or the next promotion. That society needs him more than NAFTA, the EURO or IMF handouts. That success and happiness are measured in the next life rather than in this. That eternity lasts, whereas this life is passing.

You have to be ready to do what almost without exception your friends think is madness.

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 17-19, 2003, Test Your Call Retreat. Ages 16-30. Contact Br Branigan Sherman at vocation@legionaries.org or at (800) 420-5409. Price: none.

Rome, Italy. December 27, 2003 - January 5, 2004. Pilgrimage for college-aged men and high school seniors. Price: $399 + airfare. Chaplains are the Legionaries of Christ. Contact Karolee Stauduhar at kstauduhar@msn.com or (407) 869-8263.

REGNUM CHRISTI consecrated men

Call Tony MacDonnell for more information, (301) 365-3205. amacdonnell@arcol.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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Copyright 2004, Legion of Christ.

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