Dear Saints,

"Today the Lord continues to call us to follow him. We should not wait to be perfect in order to respond with our generous 'yes,' nor be fearful of our limitations and sins, but instead open our hearts to the voice of the Lord. To listen to that voice, to discern our personal mission in the Church and the world, and at last to live it in the today that God gives us.” - Pope Francis

‘Tis the season for weddings and ordinations! As we support and celebrate the newly married and newly ordained (and for me personally, as I approach the 16th anniversary of my own ordination) it’s a perfect opportunity to reflect on the nature of vocation.

God doesn't roll the dice or play the odds when creating a new person; on the contrary, each human life is a deliberate and perfectly planned summons into his own heart. A vocation, then, is the unique and unrepeatable path by which each of us is drawn into communion with God - right here and now - and sent forth by him into the waiting world (also right here and now). To discover one’s vocation is not merely to choose, but to listen and discern God’s call with reverence and total abandonment of fear and hesitation.

As a parish community, it is our responsibility to foster a culture in which this divine call can be heard, nurtured, and pursued wholeheartedly. May we encourage one another to seek first the Kingdom of God in the manner in which he invites that seeking. And may our mutual encouragement remind each of us that the fullness of life is found not in self-assertion but in self-gift, recklessly poured out in love for God and neighbor.

Christ’s Peace,

Father Daniel

δοῦλος Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ