Come and Journey with Me

“Come and journey with me”

That is God’s simple and humble invitation to each and every one of us…lately it’s been a phrase I have been taking to prayer…

Vocation. The English form of the word comes from the Latin word Voco, Vocare, meaning, “to call”. According to Merriam-Webster it is “a summons or strong inclination to a particular state or course of action; especially : a divine call to the religious life.” But it is important to remember that we all have a vocation, not just priests and religious…we often forget that marriage and celibate single life are also vocations.

Whatever your vocation in life may be, it is important to remember these three things:

1. Pray and discern, even if you are contemplating a vocation to Holy Matrimony. Answering the call God has given to you is counter-cultural, we need that source of strength which only prayer can give us. God is your Father, God is your Brother, God is your Strength and Inspiration…why wouldn't you spend some time with the awesome gift that God is?! We know that there will be people out there that view us differently for answering our call…but God will only love us all the more. Perhaps we can get discouraged and down because of the way some people view us, or because the road is beginning to get rocky…go to God in prayer and allow Him to hold you. You don’t need to say anything…just sit, know that He is God, and allow the hands that formed the universe to hold you.
2. Do not be afraid. Christ loved us so much that he was willing to go to the cross. Do we love Christ enough that, if our journey leads to the cross, we will push on? Do not be afraid…God is saying, “Come and journey with me” not “Go ahead and go on that journey”…God longs to be with you, let Him lead you and you will never be alone. He loves you so much that he quite literally holds out His hand to us and patiently waits for us to take hold of it, so that the journey can begin. And if your journey does lead to the cross, He is right there beside you, loving you with a love that we cannot even begin to understand.
3. I am no saint, I don’t pretend to be one, if I come off that way I am so sorry…I am a sinner and I will ask for God’s mercy and forgiveness all the days of my life. I fall, but those hands that held the leper, broke the bread, and were pierced by the nails of the cross, are held out to me…waiting to help me back to my feet. Then, joined hand-in-hand, we continue on the journey…together. God never abandons us…we abandon Him. Perhaps we can’t feel God’s presence…that does not mean He isn't there with you. Do not be discouraged…know that God loves you, and if you fall, the journey is not over, He is waiting to help you back to your feet.

Whatever your vocation is, it will lead you to holiness. It is not by pretending to be extraordinary that we become holy, but it is by becoming ordinary that we become extraordinary and holy. The lives which God is calling us to may seem ordinary, but the very fact that God has called you to that way of life, is what makes it extraordinary and by following that way of life, we can grow in our relationship with God, which, in turn, will make us holier men and women.

Christ is inviting you to journey with him…the course is set, the thongs of your sandals are tied, your walking-stick is in hand…will you take that first step?

Accepting Jesus

We, as Catholics, can sometimes catch ourselves slipping our voices into a deep Southern accent, and asking one another "Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal lord and savior?!" as a way to poke fun at people of other denominations. There's two issues with this:

1) It is NOT acceptable behavior for Catholics to poke fun of people of other faiths or denominations. We are called to love and to bring people back home to Christ. If we are sitting around making fun of the people we are called to evangelize, do you really think those people are going to WANT to come to Christ with us? The answer is simply, no. They will be drawn to a loving and welcoming community, not one that hates and disassociates itself from its other brothers and sisters in Christ.

2) As much as we Catholics don't want to admit it...those people have a very important point.

Allow me to expand on that second idea. We can learn more and more about the faith, read the Catechism, go to daily Mass, be active in our parish communities, even go so far as to enter seminary...but if we do all this without accepting Christ into our hearts, I tell you, it has no meaning.

Unfortunately, we see this a lot within the Church today. People will attend Mass, participate in their parish activities, buy the raffle tickets, drop a twenty-dollar bill in the collection basket, and say these pre-printed prayers...but none of this means ANYTHING if it is not coming from the heart. I know, personally, that I had this problem. I would kneel at adoration, genuflect toward the tabernacle, bow toward the altar, and serve Mass for two reasons: 1) I knew that was my duty and 2) to be seen. I wanted to be seen doing these things...it wasn't about Christ. In my heart, it was about me. That "piety" which people complemented me on...really wasn't there...I looked pious so that people would notice how "holy" and "Catholic" I was...but I was far from it. I would "pray" which means I would say these words, which I was reading off of a card, into an aimless abyss...no one would hear my "prayer" because I wasn't speaking from my heart...I was reading to myself, not to God. I had no prayer life, because I didn't know how to pray. Prayer took place in my mind...not my heart.

What caused this mess? I'll tell you, it is so simple that I am shocked many more people have not noticed, the problem is that we as Catholics have a tendency to over-intellectualize the faith. Not that intellectualization is bad...but if you only concentrate on the intellectual aspect of the faith, you are focusing on your mind and forgetting about the heart! Christ is trapped in our minds as this wonderfully beautiful idea, but it is when we allow Christ into our hearts that he becomes an even more beautiful reality.

Though I didn't know how to do it, I set out to "accept" Jesus into my heart. I sat down in front of my laptop, went to Google, typed in "Accepting Jesus..."— then I realized that I had turned right back to the activity I was trying to get away from...I was trying to intellectualize the situation. So, I closed my laptop, jumped into my car, drove to a Perpetual Adoration Chapel, and sat down in one of the seats for a little while. Then...I cleared my mind (probably the hardest thing I have ever done), knelt down, and stared at Jesus, who was made present by the Holy Eucharist, and uttered two simple words "Help me." Though I was Catholic because of my baptism and Confirmation, I became a practicing, praying, and God-fearing Catholic that day.

I would now like to pose a question to you...Christ is standing at the door of your heart and knocking, when will you let Him in?