If God is calling you… Follow your heart
If God is calling you… Follow your heart
If God calls you to religious life, don’t hesitate to believe it or to consent to it, with all your heart, even if, afterwards, you will need time and maturity to be confirmed in your vocation. Choose to have confidence in the Lord by accepting to embark on this adventure. By choosing the religious life, you will adopt the way of Christ by living the evangelical counsels[1]. This means that, for you, this world’s values[2] are not necessarily the ultimate ones of true life. Through this choice, you will acknowledge the existence of another way, the evangelical way, to live differently, to live to the full. You can then delve straight into this way if Christ’s love motivates and captivates you. He will give you the courage to take the first step and to commit yourself in this regal way, if it is really He who invites you to be his follower. In this case, don’t be afraid…
[1] The evangelical advice consists of three religious vows: obedience , chastity and poverty
[2] The world’s values being :power, assets and knowledge
Come Away…
If you feel the call to religious life, do not close your ears. It is Christ in person who invites you to withdraw from the world for a while, during the novitiate, a time of seclusion, isolation, and separation from the world. As he did with his disciples[1], he will take you with him “to the far side of the desert” in order to lead you into his intimacy and the mystery of his person. Thus, you will be able to confirm the truth and sound out the depth of this vocation.
The novitiate is conceived as a withdrawn life with the Master, far from the deafening noise and activities of the world… so that you gain enough distance to learn how to know yourself better and to examine, in the necessary silence and serenity, the real desire of your heart.
It is, for you, a matter of establishing a spatial, temporal and psychological distance with your previous life. This distance could and should help you create another, deeper distance, to make the required passage from one mentality to another; to convert yourself to the Gospel, to Christ’s mentality. It is a course of action marked by radicalism and self offering for the love of He who incarnates Love.
The spatial, temporal and psychological distance, along with the initiation of the Holy Spirit’s teachings, will prepare you to welcome a new way of being and thinking, which is the way of the Gospel. This new choice will imply spirituality and a state of mind, a rooting process and a deep opening of mind. It will be in complete awe of the spiritual experience – in the Spirit, of the Spirit, by the Spirit – that you will be led to live; a strong, personal, and individual experience in closeness with Christ. It will transform you and convert you progressively to make you even more beautiful. You will then say with the psalmist: “This wonder I am, these wonderful works of yours, Lord” (Psalms 139 (138), 14)
As a tree planted near a stream…
If God calls you to religious life, He will surely invite you to live in his intimacy, in his company, in all times and places. It is the essence and the very meaning of this vocation. You will be called to develop in you the contemplative dimension, the one adopted by Mary herself “…at the feet of the Master” before the one adopted by “…the busy Martha”, even though it was the Master himself whom she was working for. Jesus will ask you, before anything else, to come to a close relation with Him. The secret of your original vocation is to be like the tree in the first psalm, whose roots were deeply buried in good, fertile earth, saturated with water. Which water? The good water, sweet and always new, the water of love that never dries up, the water of God’s loyalty, the water of the wounded side of Christ on the cross, the water springing up from the Holy Spirit.
You will be called to form yourself, slowly, surely, daily, in the Master’s school, by listening to his words, understanding his gestures, contemplating his face. You will be called to share his secret, to unite your destiny to his, to let yourself be captivated by his gaze and his loving and appealing presence.
The religious vocation is similar to the grain that falls to the earth. For, before the tree with green foliage bears juicy fruits, it is a simple grain that has to grow through the care of a chief gardener. As soon as it falls onto the good earth, it is then received, cocooned and loved by this earth. There, far from the world, and from inquisitive eyes, a long path of growth starts. Progressively, the new life that lies dormant, begins to move, tears open the tight seed cover, appears before the light, spreads out and blooms in anticipation of reaching its fullness.
Take care of your roots
Take care of your human roots
If God calls you to religious life, you will withdraw to know yourself better, not by introspection but in the light of the Holy Spirit. The novitiate is a time to read your personal life, your history, your capacities and limits over and over again… it is a discovery of yourself that you are invited to act upon in the light of truth and under the radiant gaze of Jesus and his Word.
You will be helped in establishing your inner boundaries and references. You will learn how to learn, how to make choices, how to take charge of yourself, to say no, to develop your spirit, abilities and talents, to dig deeply, to widen your inner space rather than to flaunt yourself superficially and spread yourself indefinitely, to grow in wisdom and grace as well as in age. This is how a consecrated person is built.
Helping you become responsible for your being will be the first service we can offer you. Therefore, engaging in your own freedom you will assume the process of your own development. It involves helping you picture yourself in all honesty, to see your hesitations, your setbacks and your progress with realism and open-mindedness.
In reality this demands real discernment in order to reexamine, incessantly “the soundness of your intentions”[2]. Some human qualities will be essential to you: to humanize the human element in you, to possess the maturity of your age, to own good judgment, good sense, the intelligence of life, to learn from your own experiences and to learn continually.
In the world of today, to develop your spirit and intelligence is a necessity. You strength of character will be derived, among other things, from the soundness of your intellectual formation. Forming the mind comes, at the same time, under the organization of thoughts, the ordering of the faculty of reasoning and the rigor of word. This will be a kind of asceticism which in turn will lead you to a saintliness of intelligence since holiness purifies, frees and completely transcends the human being by taking him/her to the essential…
Root yourself in the word of God, in Christ
If you agree to follow your heart by following the Christ, the novitiate will be for you a time for discovering the person of Jesus, and his strong and resonant Word; because “We get to the heart of God through the Word of God”[3] as the Church Fathers said. The Word of God will be your close friend, your nourishment, your beverage, your way, your truth and your life. The Gospel will be your mirror, your companion and the example that will guide you in your daily life. The regular Lectio Divina will delight your days through contemplation, the liturgy and the study of Scriptures.
Let yourself be guided
If you accept guidance, spiritual accompaniment will be the privileged place where you will see yourself grow. It will be precious time in which you will make an effort to TELL ‘yourself’ to somebody, to formulate and articulate what is happening inside you, what is in gestation and what has already been clarified. This Word will be beneficial in many respects: to accept to refer to persons other than yourself, to realize that you are not your own master, to not live in your own shell or in self-importance, to have the humility of consulting, to ask for advice, to submit your reasoning to someone, your decisions, your desires, all of this by conversing with an older person. By accepting this initiation in accompaniment, in development under the surveillance of a spiritual master, of a guide, you will grant yourself the means of really knowing yourself, because accompaniment will be the scene of objectivism, of the verification and authentication of your actual life, of your human and spiritual experiences.
Root yourself in your spiritual and ecclesiastic family
If God calls you to religious life, the novitiate will be a time of discovering ecclesiastic adherence through community, the liturgy and the Institute. It will be a filial and radical adherence through both the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation, already received. It will be the place where you will learn to know, enjoy, and love the richness of your Church through the radiant faces of the Fathers of long ago and the prophets of today, through participation in the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, “Source and summit of ecclesiastic life.” (see John Paul II).
Convert yourself
If God calls you to religious life, the novitiate will be a favorable framework through which you can move towards a new way of life. Living in Jesus Christ and in fraternity will constitute a furnace that will transform you. By calling you to follow him, Christ will incessantly call you to get rid of your old self[4], of your old way of seeing and living things, in order to prepare yourself to transform, one of these days, the world where you will be invited to extend the mission of Christ[5]. So, when the moment comes, like the prophet Isaiah praying in the sanctuary, you will hear again the same call: “Whom shall I send? Who will be sent for us?” and you will answer: “Here I am, send me!” But you will not hear clearly this call unless you accept the contemplation of the glory of God in his sanctuary and let yourself be purified by the burning coal from the altar (al jamra el ghafira) [6] which, “…removes your guilt and forgives your sins once it has touched your lips.”
(Isaiah 6: 1-13)
Widen the space of your tent
In the secluded life of the novitiate, as in Nazareth with the Holy Family, you will learn to be: as wise as a snake and as obedient as a dove; meek and humble of heart[7] and merciful [8]; to have good judgment,[9] to be generous,[10] detached and a nomad[11], good and fertile[12] ,setting an aim and striving for eternity[13]. You will learn to dig deep within you; to root yourself in Him, like the good grain in the good earth, near the stream, that, as the days go by, prepares its deployment and opening up to the world.
If God calls you and you choose freely to say yes to him, you will accept with the same freedom, to be sent into the world, a messenger of peace, the preacher of the goof word, the maker of the Kingdom. You will be sent to be the salt of the earth[14],the mustard seed[15], the yeast of the dough[16], as a modest servant[17], a small light[18], a ball of fire, a ball of love[19], a visible sign of the beauty of God, present in the heart of the world.
Therefore, you will be called to become the visible body of Christ, “the witness of a vision”[20] by showing the treasure that you bear in you even if in a clay pot[21]. You will strive for the salvation, life, peace, joy and justice of the world…
The Sequela Christi will be for you a regal way if you accept to be Christ’s follower, for better or for worse, by armoring yourself with the prayer Jesus addressed to his Father: “I am not asking you to remove them from the world, but to protect them from the Evil One” (John 17,15)
You shall bear fruit in due time and your foliage will never fade…
As this grain that became a tree, thanks to the life giving water that flows in its veins from its roots, you will spread your branches, a home for the birds of the air[22]. Your presence in the heart of the world will become comfort for those who approach you. They will come under the cover of your leaves and eat of your fruits. Your fruits will have the taste of honey. As a ripened tree, you will show the full worth of yourself, thanks to the chief gardener who took good care of your roots.
This shall be your destiny, your mission, if you accept to consecrate your life and your youthful vigor to the service of the Master, Lord of life. Since you grew under his wings, drank from the life giving water, plunged your roots in the good earth of the Lord, you shall be consecrated and sent so that the world may enjoy the plenitude of life.
Happy you shall be… if you hear his call and answer it with Mary: FIAT … Amen Lord!
If your heart hears the music of his voice[23] , Do not be afraid… Follow your heart…
[1] See Mark 6:31
[2]Starting Afresh In Christ. 19
[3] Gregory the Great (+ 604)
[4] Ephesians 4,22
[5] I have come not to judge the world, but to save the world (John 12.47)
[6] Eucharistic prayer of the liturgy of the Maronite Mass
[7] Take my yoke and put it on you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble in heart..(Mt 11:29)
[8] Do not judge and you will not be judged; because the judgements you give are the judgements you will get…(Mt 7:1)
[9] Do not throw your pearls in front of pigs… Mt 7:6
[10] If someone wishes to go to law with you to get your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone requires you to go one mile, go two miles with him. And if anyone hits you on the right cheek, offer him the other as well (Mt 5:40-41)
[11] Do not store up treasures on earth…(Mt 16:19) no one can be the slave of two masters…you cannot be the slave of both God and money (Mt 6:24)
[12] A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit…(Mt 7:18)
[13] Enter by the narrow gate…(Mt 7:13)
[14] You are salt for the earth…(mt5:13)
[15] You are the mustard seed… (Mt 13:31-32)
[16] You are the yeast in the dough…(Mt 13:13)
[17] In all truth I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, no messenger is greater than the one who sent him. (Jn 13:15-16)
[18] You are light for the world…(Mt 5:14)
[19] Love one another,…love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you (Mt 5:44)
[20] See Acts
[21] See 2 Corinthians 4:7
[22] See Matthew 13:31-32
[23] See Song of Songs