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We Are Each Hand-Picked By God |
 As
we approach the end of Easter and anticipate the Lord’s ascension into
heaven, the Church’s liturgy offers us some of the most consoling words
of Jesus recorded in the Gospels. I refer to the Gospel of John, where
Jesus reassures the disciples—and us—that we won’t be orphaned; that he
is coming back for us; that his Spirit will abide with us and within us
forever. That we are his.
The statement of Jesus that always
strikes me most deeply is this: “You did not choose me, but I chose you”
(Jn 15:16).
It’s easy to forget sometimes that our self-reliance and initiative
have not brought us to where we are in our Christian calling, in the
mission we do “for” God. We do not “choose” God or our vocation; it is
first of all his initiative, the free gift of his love. And this gift is
not just for priests and nuns; it is for everyone.
It’s tremendously comforting to know
that God chooses us, empowers us, and sends us to witness to his joy
each and every day. I may be uncertain of many things—what tomorrow
will bring, which way I should proceed or how I should respond to the
needs all around me—but I will never be uncertain that I have been
hand-picked by God, out of love and for love. And neither should you.
After I first entered the convent, I
received much-needed light for my vocational journey from now-Blessed
John Henry Newman. Newman’s classic “I Have My Mission” is both an act
of trust in God’s choice of us and a prayer that we might fulfill the
divine purpose to which we are each called. That purpose might not be
readily discernible to us, but we know, in faith, that it is one of
love. May we continue to discover and draw strength from this
conviction.
Sr. Donna W. Giaimo, FSP |
God Is the Strength of My Heart
Let us beg and pray Him day by day to reveal
Himself to our souls more fully; to quicken our senses; to give us sight
and hearing, taste and touch of the world to come; so to work within us
that we may sincerely say, “Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel, and
after that receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and
there is none upon earth that I desire in comparison of Thee: my flesh
and my heart faileth; but God is the strength of my heart, and my
portion for ever.”-excerpt from Life's Purpose: Wisdom from John Henry Newman
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