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goforgoal
Guest
“Responding to God’s Call” Retreat
DAY ONE: GOD’S CALL, THE FRUIT OF GRACE
Scripture Reading
“Grace to you and peace be accomplished in the knowledge of God and of Christ Jesus our Lord: As all things of his divine power which pertain to life and godliness, are given us, through the knowledge of him who hath called us by his own proper glory and virtue. By whom he has given us most great and precious promises: that by these you may be made partakers of divine nature: flying the corruption of that concupiscence which is in the world.” (2 Peter 1:2-4)
Meditation
We were born with a tendency built right into us to enjoy God in heaven as our purpose. We have a natural capacity for God. “The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God for God and God never ceases to draw man to himself.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 27) This is because we have an intellect. There are many ways which God uses to draw man to himself. The deepest among these is God giving him a vocation to the priesthood or religious life.
A vocation is a calling from God to live a divinely centered life. Traditionally the person called in this way is seeking first his own salvation. In many orders and certainly in the priesthood, the person is seeking the salvation of others, too. No one can say that they were born a priest or a religious. Since each vocation is an expression of our relationship with God based on the grace we received in baptism, the foundation for every vocation is an ongoing cultivation of our union with God by grace.
In Baptism, each of us received sanctifying grace, which is a true inner change - not just in who we are but in what we are. The Second Book of Peter says we become “partakers in divine nature.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines this grace as “an habitual gift, a stable and supernatural disposition that perfects the soul itself to enable it to live with God, to act by his love.” (n. 2000)
By grace we can enter moment by moment into communion with the Holy Trinity here on earth. We know as God knows and love as God loves because he gives us a share in his very life. This enables us to regard time from the perspective of eternity. By grace, each of us also received all the virtues and gifts necessary to live life from this perspective. But we received them in seed. If they are to develop and truly influence our lives, we must consent to receive God’s action. So in any vocation it is important to remember: WE DID NOT CHOOSE HIM. HE CHOSE US.
Consent to divine trust and reliance on divine providence is perhaps one of the most difficult things for most of us to do. Each one of us would like to call all the shots and to control everything about what happens to us. This is actually a weakness in us because when you think about it we did not control our own birth and we came into this world with nothing but our lives and our talent. Even these are not exclusively our own, so we cannot take credit for them.
In any Christian vocation Christ asks that we address this tendency in us to rely on ourselves because it threatens the natural tendency God has placed in us to rely on him alone for all that we have and are. Though this can involve great sacrifice to us because of the weakness of the original sin, both the calling and the challenge come from divine love. In each vocation then, we must first have a love affair with the Lord.
Vocations cannot result from someone trying to have the family they never had, or just something nice to do with their life because they may be on in years, or result from fear of the opposite sex or of the adult responsibilities of life and family. Nor can someone look on a religious vocation as a useful and easy way to concentrate one’s forces on some earthly activity. Instead, the basis must be a perceived knowledge and love on some level of God’s personal and intimate action in the life of the one called. The concentration of the forces of our inner life then must be on God and the things of God. A person who is in it for any other reason will always be unhappy even if he perseveres and often make those his lives with and serves unhappy on some level as well.
The focus of the conviction that one has a vocation must result from living a God-centered life both in prayer and in action. One must breathe in the Trinity on a daily basis because one’s new life can only be perfect in God.
Points of Reference
Do I have a hunger for God personally and to make him known and love by others?
Am I relatively certain that I am not running from some imperfect situation in my life but rather choosing something better?
Is the love of God motivating me?
Do I want a deeper — even a spousal relationship — with Christ on a daily basis?
Am I sure that God has chosen me and not that I have chosen Him?
Prayer
Dear Lord, You enlighten our minds and strengthen our wills to discern Your call by Your grace. Grant that I may so be attentive to Your will that I may truly live the life You want for me. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
religiouslife.com
DAY ONE: GOD’S CALL, THE FRUIT OF GRACE
Scripture Reading
“Grace to you and peace be accomplished in the knowledge of God and of Christ Jesus our Lord: As all things of his divine power which pertain to life and godliness, are given us, through the knowledge of him who hath called us by his own proper glory and virtue. By whom he has given us most great and precious promises: that by these you may be made partakers of divine nature: flying the corruption of that concupiscence which is in the world.” (2 Peter 1:2-4)
Meditation
We were born with a tendency built right into us to enjoy God in heaven as our purpose. We have a natural capacity for God. “The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God for God and God never ceases to draw man to himself.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 27) This is because we have an intellect. There are many ways which God uses to draw man to himself. The deepest among these is God giving him a vocation to the priesthood or religious life.
A vocation is a calling from God to live a divinely centered life. Traditionally the person called in this way is seeking first his own salvation. In many orders and certainly in the priesthood, the person is seeking the salvation of others, too. No one can say that they were born a priest or a religious. Since each vocation is an expression of our relationship with God based on the grace we received in baptism, the foundation for every vocation is an ongoing cultivation of our union with God by grace.
In Baptism, each of us received sanctifying grace, which is a true inner change - not just in who we are but in what we are. The Second Book of Peter says we become “partakers in divine nature.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines this grace as “an habitual gift, a stable and supernatural disposition that perfects the soul itself to enable it to live with God, to act by his love.” (n. 2000)
By grace we can enter moment by moment into communion with the Holy Trinity here on earth. We know as God knows and love as God loves because he gives us a share in his very life. This enables us to regard time from the perspective of eternity. By grace, each of us also received all the virtues and gifts necessary to live life from this perspective. But we received them in seed. If they are to develop and truly influence our lives, we must consent to receive God’s action. So in any vocation it is important to remember: WE DID NOT CHOOSE HIM. HE CHOSE US.
Consent to divine trust and reliance on divine providence is perhaps one of the most difficult things for most of us to do. Each one of us would like to call all the shots and to control everything about what happens to us. This is actually a weakness in us because when you think about it we did not control our own birth and we came into this world with nothing but our lives and our talent. Even these are not exclusively our own, so we cannot take credit for them.
In any Christian vocation Christ asks that we address this tendency in us to rely on ourselves because it threatens the natural tendency God has placed in us to rely on him alone for all that we have and are. Though this can involve great sacrifice to us because of the weakness of the original sin, both the calling and the challenge come from divine love. In each vocation then, we must first have a love affair with the Lord.
Vocations cannot result from someone trying to have the family they never had, or just something nice to do with their life because they may be on in years, or result from fear of the opposite sex or of the adult responsibilities of life and family. Nor can someone look on a religious vocation as a useful and easy way to concentrate one’s forces on some earthly activity. Instead, the basis must be a perceived knowledge and love on some level of God’s personal and intimate action in the life of the one called. The concentration of the forces of our inner life then must be on God and the things of God. A person who is in it for any other reason will always be unhappy even if he perseveres and often make those his lives with and serves unhappy on some level as well.
The focus of the conviction that one has a vocation must result from living a God-centered life both in prayer and in action. One must breathe in the Trinity on a daily basis because one’s new life can only be perfect in God.
Points of Reference
Do I have a hunger for God personally and to make him known and love by others?
Am I relatively certain that I am not running from some imperfect situation in my life but rather choosing something better?
Is the love of God motivating me?
Do I want a deeper — even a spousal relationship — with Christ on a daily basis?
Am I sure that God has chosen me and not that I have chosen Him?
Prayer
Dear Lord, You enlighten our minds and strengthen our wills to discern Your call by Your grace. Grant that I may so be attentive to Your will that I may truly live the life You want for me. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
religiouslife.com