Day 129: Many Vocations (934-945)

• It’s Day 129!!

• It’s MCNUGGET DAY!!

• Quite a few MCNUGGETS!!

• Family Size MCNUGGETS!!

• Let’s say a prayer and call upon the Lord and ask the Lord to allow God to speak to us about this summary that He wants to remind us of

• The goodness of forming a visible Church

• The goodness of giving us a Holy Father in the Pope

• The goodness of giving us bishops as shepherds and priests and deacons as their coworkers

• The dignity that God has bestowed upon all of us in sharing with us His priestly, prophetic, and royal offices

Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven, we thank you. We give you praise and glory. Thank you for bringing us here to Day 129. We thank you for walking with us every step along the way. We thank you for every person who has been praying for us on this journey. And we ask you to please help us to take one step at a time. Help us to hear what it is you simply want to remind us of this day. And help us to not only hear these words, but to put them into action. Not only to be reminded of who it is you have called us to be and how it is you have called us to live, but truly let our hearts, our attitudes, our actions be transformed by this Truth, by you, by your Grace. We make this prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen”

• And there we have it!!

• Paragraph 934 says, “‘Among the Christian faithful by divine institution there exist in the Church sacred ministers, who are also called clerics in law, and other Christian faithful who are also called laity.’ In both groups there are those Christian faithful who, professing the evangelical counsels, are consecrated to God and so serve the Church’s saving mission.”

• Clerics are the bishops, priests, and deacons

• Laity are those who are not in holy orders and those who have not made public professions of vows

• THIS IS SO IMPORTANT!!

• There is something about being reminded of this

• This is the structure of the Church

• This is the gift we have right now

• BUT…

• Why?

• Paragraph 935 says, “To proclaim the faith and to plant his reign, Christ sends his apostles and their successors. He gives them a share in his own mission. From him they receive the power to act in his person.”

• THIS IS SO IMPORTANT FOR US!!

• Sometimes when we are reading about these things it can become dry or talking about structures and systems

• We are interested in the WHY

• We are interested in the HEART behind the whole thing

• Paragraph 935 reminds us of the HEART

• The mission is to teach, lead, serve, govern, guide, shepherd, and sanctify

• The Lord Jesus wants this whole world to become holy

• He wants this whole world to know the truth

• He wants this whole world to be led to the Father

• THAT is why He sent the Church out into the world

• Tomorrow we will talk about the fact that the Church exists in time on Earth

• BUT…

• There is also THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS

• There are all those people who have been brought into the family of God who have come before us

• Those people who are living right now in God’s very presence

• THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS are all the faithful from ALL TIME who exist and are alive

• Remember Jesus said He is the God of the LIVING and NOT of the dead

• All those who DIE in Christ are ALIVE in Christ

• When we talk about the Church sometimes we mean the visible structure of the Church

• Sometimes we mean the People of God and we mean those who are alive right now

• AND YET…

• Tomorrow we are going to talk about THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS

• Yes the Church is the People of God who are alive right now

• BUT ALSO…

• The Church is ALL OF THOSE PEOPLE who are ALIVE IN CHRIST RIGHT NOW

• Whether in Purgatory

• OR…

• Those in the Beatific Vision in Heaven

• WE ARE SURROUNDED SUCH A GREAT CLOUD OF WITNESSES!!

• WE ARE SURROUNDED BY THIS COMMUNION OF SAINTS!!

• We give God praise for that

• Why?

• Because Jesus Christ has sent His Church out into the world to proclaim the faith and to establish His reign more fully

• HE is the one who did it all

• And now WE get to do it through His power

• IT IS SUCH AN INCREDIBLE GIFT!!

• Paragraph 945 is almost a word-for-word paraphrase of Paragraph 931

• Paragraph 945 says, “Already destined for him through Baptism, the person who surrenders himself to the God he loves above all else thereby consecrates himself more intimately to God’s service and to the good of the whole Church.”

• If you have been Baptized, you are destined for God

• God wills that EVERYONE be saved

• That is the destination that He created us for

• This means specifically those who are in consecrated life 

• BUT…

• It is ALL OF US through Baptism

• When we surrender ourselves to the God we love above all else, we consecrate ourselves more intimately to God’s service and to the good of the whole Church

• It’s worth it to pause and RECONSECRATE OURSELVES

• If you have been Baptized you have been set apart to be holy and for a purpose

• BUT…

• We have the opportunity right now to RECONSECRATE OURSELVES

• “Ok Lord. I once again give you permission to set me apart. I give you permission to be my Lord. I surrender myself to you. You are the God that I love and I’m yours for your service and for the good of the whole Church. First of all, help me to follow you in poverty, chastity, and obedience. Help me to let you love me. Help me to love you back and to serve you and to serve the whole Church.”

• Hope that makes sense!!

• Today could be a pivot day for us

• Today could be a day to pause and say we need to be RECONSECRATED

• That doesn’t mean we have to go through an official rite of reconsecration

• It means today is the day where we pause and say, “Ok Lord. I give you permission. I give you permission to love me. I give you permission to call me forward. I give you permission to give me your Grace. And I surrender myself to you, the God I love.”

• Let’s pray for each other that we do this today

• Pray for every person listening to this

• That we all reconsecrate ourselves to the God we love

• Fr. Mike is praying FOR YOU!!

• Please pray for Fr. Mike and for each other!!

• I cannot WAIT to see you tomorrow!!