WE THE CHURCH ARE CALLED TO BE ONE
-
September 13, 2021BUT ARE WE INDIVIDUALLY LIVING OUR VOCATIONS?
First of all, do we know clearly what our vocation is? And, secondly, are we seeking to live it whole-heartedly?
Our Lady of Fatima in one of her messages said, “The penance I now demand and require is the sacrifice of daily duty.”
What are our personal daily duties which flow from our personal vocations and missions in life?
Of utmost importance for each of us as Baptized Christians, is that we daily seek to live an ever-deeper communion of life with God; and seek to do His Divine Will, within the personal mission and plan for which He has created us.
Many of us have already chosen a certain vocation in life (whether or not it was consciously discerned in prayer). No matter our present vocation, key for each of us is to learn from Jesus, who is “the way, the truth and the life.”
Jesus lived in profound union with his Father in Heaven throughout every moment of his earthly life; at each moment seeking the Father’s Divine Will. And He teaches us to be one with Him in doing the same. In this we come to know God’s will and plan each day. Wherever we find ourselves at this time in our lives, today
is a new day to seek to foster communion with God and discern his Divine Will. For in this alone is where our happiness lies. Not in riches, fame and fortune, but in poverty of spirit and purity of heart.
“Unless you be as children, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”
PERSONAL MISSIONS WITHIN LAY VOCATIONS
We have all been created with special gifts and graces to aid us in fulfilling God’s Holy Will and plan in life. It is important that we are attentive to our personal callings, which we come to know in the deepest core of our hearts especially as we spend quiet time with God (Ideally in Eucharistic Adoration).
“By reason of their special vocation it belongs to the laity to seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and directing them according to God’s will… It pertains to them in a special way so to illuminate and order all temporal things with which they are closely associated that these may always be effected and grow according to Christ and may be to the glory of the Creator and Redeemer.” (CCC 898)
“Lay believers are in the front line of Church life: for them the Church is the animating principle of human society… Their activity in ecclesial communities is so necessary that, for the most part, the apostolate of the pastors cannot be fully effective without it” (CCC 899,900).
MANY FACETS TO THE CONSECRATED LIFE
Some have chosen to follow Christ more perfectly (cf. Mat 19:21) in the Consecrated life, choosing to begin living here on earth the eschatological (espousal) union with God, to which we are all ultimately called in Heaven for all eternity (cf. 1Cor 7:25-32).
Many Catholics don’t understand the Consecrated Life and its various facets within the Church. For example, often there is a mindset that one must live in a large religious community in order to be a nun, a sister or brother consecrated to God; or that one must teach, nurse, work with the poor, or do some other form of active work; or wear a certain type of habit.
But in fact, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church states, the Consecrated life is “one great tree…branching out into various forms of religious life lived in solitude or community” (CCC 917).
“From the very beginning of the Church there were men and women who set out to follow Christ with greater liberty, and to imitate him more closely, by practicing the evangelical counsels. They led lives dedicated to God, each in his own way. Many of them, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, became hermits or founded religious families. These the Church, by virtue of her authority, gladly accepted and approved.” (CCC 918)
ONE BODY, MANY PARTS
We as the Church Militant here on earth are one body, but many parts. We all have different callings and functions, at the heart of which is communion with God and one another.
Those who are called to the married vocation (or single life) in this world, are called to receive nourishment at the altar of God, and to live the Sacramental life of the Church; from there going forth to be yeast in the dough of this world; bringing the Spirit of Christ to all; being church to this fallen world.
Those who have chosen to be set apart for God in this life through the Priesthood or Consecrated life, are called to Spiritual Fatherhood and Motherhood, bearing the fruit of re-birth in Christ, for those for whom they pray and sacrifice. There are various charisms and missions within the consecrated life, which at the heart of all is prayer. As living sacrifices with Jesus and Mary, they are to bring the nourishing and nurturing presence of Mother Church to all, whether through spiritual or corporal works of mercy.
“There is one body, but it has many parts. But all its many parts make up one body. It is the same with Christ. We were all baptized by one Holy Spirit. And so we are formed into one body. It didn’t matter whether we were Jews or Gentiles, slaves or free people. We were all given the same Spirit to drink. So the body is not made up of just one part. It has many parts” (1Cor 12:12-14).
+Heavenly Mother Mary, pray for us to know clearly God’s Holy Will for our lives individually and as one body the Church. Just as you gave birth to Jesus over 2000 years ago, as we live our Consecrations to your Immaculate Heart, may you give birth to us spiritually to become the “New Church” renewed, purified, transformed in the image and likeness of Christ your Son.+
"To Our Divine Eucharistic Bridegroom, through Our Immaculate Mother!"MOMEP.O. BOX 1503Picayune, MS 39466
