Removed

“He wants you to be a saint – right there!” (Saint Josemaria, “The Forge” at 362).

The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist (Chavannes)

I believe that everyone has a vocation.  Some of us are born to teach.  Others to bank.  Others are born talkers.  Other people are born to advertise or sell or undertake marketing.  Other people are able to farm or garden or do all sorts of things that God allows them to do.

Sometimes those things are really hard to do and are very specialised.  At other times, the things that they have been asked to do are quite common.  My mother, for example, was born to be a mother, my father born to be patient.

I was probably born to try new things.

Whatever the vocation that God has instilled in us, the thing that I have been thinking about today is just how much care God has taken with that vocation.  He did not pick a job for me out of the air and say, there she will go, I shall give her something to do and that should be close enough to what I need her to do to prepare herself for heaven.  No.  Instead, God has carefully chosen the tasks in front of me so that I am able to do them and to make Him proud in doing them…  And those tasks have been carefully designed as a mechanism to get me to Heaven.

Saint Josemaria wrote in “The Forge” at 362, “God is not removing you from your environment. He is not taking you away from the world, or from your condition in life, or from your noble human ambitions, or from your professional work... But He wants you to be a saint – right there!” (Saint Josemaria, “The Forge” at 362).

And I have been thinking about that.  It seems that every job that I could do – provided it is not evil and is not opposed to God’s will – is GOOD.  And it seems that God has chosen my “thing” just for me. And when I stop and consider that I am overcome with love for my Eternal Father, because He has designed my life for me – just for me – so that I can be ready to do what He needs me to do.  And everything about that is set up so that I can make my Beloved happy with me.

God has called me to be the light of the world.  And e calls me to light the world from my desk and my home and my work.  He calls me to be a light for the world in a shopping centre and at the supermarket.  He calls me to be light of the world right where I am.  He places me here and He does not want me removed from the day to day.  Instead, He wants me to live right in it – right here in this world – and to sanctify it through HIS LIGHT.  And I have been thinking about that today.  For it seems a beautiful blessing…

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.