June 15, 2016

By Father William Muench
NCC columnist

I want to join in the message of the North Country Catholic in praying for the success of next September’s summit “INSPIRE: Called to Love.”  So, the focus of our diocese for next few months will be on “vocation” – all vocations from the Lord.

Lake Placid will be full of Catholics on September 25.  This summit is meant to be a day of prayer and discovery – discovering who we are as the People of God. We are a loved people, called and challenged by our God to live out our own particular vocation gifted as we are by our God. Some follow their vocation in the married life, living the call to family, some as single in the world, some as dedicated religious, and some as ordained priests and deacons.

As the title of this summit indicates each of us is called to love and holiness.  Through that call to love and holiness our morning prayer for each day will be “Lord, help me to be an instrument making your will happen this day.”

I subscribe to the magazine, “Human Development,” a publication of Guest House.  This month the entire issue is dedicated to “vocation” and each article centers on the subject of a particular vocation within the Church.

We, Catholics believe that life is a vocation – everyone’s life is a vocation. We are each called by our God to make our life more meaningful, each called to make this world a better place by the way we live out our vocation.
The lead article in the magazine this month is written by Msgr. John Lenz who begins by defining vocation. He sums everything up by saying God wishes to partner with us in life – complementing our unique gifts and talents, limitations and challenges.

So, from the start of my life journey to becoming a priest, God wanted to be my partner in all that I would accomplish as a priest.

I am certain that, as a young person, I did not understand or recognize this in those early years.  I had listened to many talks about vocation in those years however, it took me many more years before I truly recognized God’s vocational pull and push. 

Now, as I look back I can honestly say I recognize how loving and protective God was to me.  I must again admit I worried more about how I looked as a priest before I finally got the message of how important was the way I accomplished my ministry as a priest, especially each time I celebrated the Holy Mass.

So, God is my partner but also your partner. God is a partner for you, married, a partner for you who chose to be single, a partner for you who have dedicated your life as a religious, a partner for you who have been ordained as priests and deacons.

God’s love for us challenges us all to bring that love of God to all that we are asked to help and serve as Church.  So, each day, I believe we all must pray that we will recognize God’s call to be our partner.  Think of it, such a gift, God wants to be involved with us all. May we be open to his loving guidance and inspiration.

Msgr. Lenz carefully adds this to his message on vocation: God has a particular purpose for everything and everyone.  This is God’s dream for this Catholic Church.  Oh, yes, too many times I resist God’s lead. I get too busy or preoccupied with my own personal program.  When will I learn to trust the Lord?

I am absolutely certain that each day the Lord has a plan to me, that God needs me so that something special, something extraordinary will be accomplished because I was willing and ready to follow the Lord’s lead.  Each day we are a part of God’s plan, not that we can plan it.  It is God’s plan.  Our God is a God of surprises.  So I make my prayer each day that I will be open and willing to do what God plans for me, needs from me.

Remember always, when understanding your vocation for each day, that God works through secondary sources – through people, sometimes the strangest people or through apparent chance occurrences.  May you or I never resist the invitation of the Lord even for the most ordinary of tasks.

Remember that sanctity is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.