MY LIFE'S WORK

MY LIFE’S WORK

 

The Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” – Acts 13:2

 

Can you do this exercise?

Substitute your name in the passage above.

How does it sound to you?

And the “work” — are you doing that which God has called you to do? Do you even know what it is?

Looking deeply into my own life, I can say that it was only in the last 15 years (I’m now in my early 50s) that I began to seek God’s purpose for my life. And no matter how late, it has been an exciting journey. I now know that the Lord has set me apart to do some work for His kingdom. He has given me talents that, as I use them now, are blessing other people. He has even used my weaknesses, such as my being a quiet person and my preference for small groups rather than big ones, as building blocks for His purpose for my life. Writing, counseling, small group facilitating — these are among the means by which God wants me to help inspire and heal other people.

Knowing this has made a lot of difference in the way I live my life now.Tess V. Atienza (svp_ tvatienza@yahoo.com)

 

REFLECTION:

Do you know God’s purpose for your life? Take the time to discover it.

 

Lead me to my life’s work, Lord, and grant me the courage to walk into it.

THE TRUE LIGHT OF THE WORLD

 

Discovering the light that will guide us is a great challenge because if we happen to choose the wrong light, we will obviously be walking on the wrong path. Jesus makes a claim that no other person has done: that He is the light of the world. He can truly say this as it is through Him that all things have been created. He is the Word of God through which the Father brought order out of chaos (Genesis 1) and through whose word the Church speaks and lives her life. What does this mean for you and me?

There are a number of consequences of all this for us: the first being that we ought to listen to the Word of God for our lives as it is the way to eternal life; and secondly, which is closely related to the first, is that when we make difficult moral decisions, we need to seek the enlightenment of Church’s teachings. Jesus has not given the authority to the bishops to teach and interpret the Scriptures for nothing. The Magisterium of the Church is the authoritative guide on matters of faith and morals. We can act under our own guidance if we so desire but this would be a foolish choice similar to driving at night in the countryside without the benefit of headlights.

We are talking here about matters of life and death that should never be taken lightly. The world is fond of avoiding the defining issues of life by dealing with the peripheralones to avoid controversy. This is a mistake as the world’s financial system discovered in 2008. The regulators took an “it’s too hard attitude” to the irresponsibility of the bankers and their advisers, and the world of finance experienced a great thud when the “house of cards” built on debt and impossible to pay back financial commitments came tumbling down in spectacular fashion. Let us not make a similar mistake with our spiritual lives. Let us build on a firm foundation that is illumined by the Light of the World, Jesus Christ.Fr. Steve Tynan, MGL

 

Reflection Question:

Do I tend to avoid the difficult questions in my life and thus create a disaster just waiting to happen sometime in the future?

 

Holy Spirit, grant me the grace to face the challenges of my life when they arise and grant me the wisdom to know how to confront and overcome them.

 

St. Valerie, pray for us.