Your Calling

Your Calling
By Jerome Placido

The past few weeks I was visiting family in Australia and my cousin posed a problem to me which I found very interesting. She said her youth group in Melbourne had such a hard time recruiting girls to join their prayer meetings and the guys greatly outnumbered the girls at this point.

It was interesting because with my experience in youth groups I’ve always found that the girls ALWAYS outnumber the guys in any event that didn’t involve a sport when it came to youth ministry gatherings. Thought I’d share what I told her I would say those girls interested in deepening their spirituality. I suppose you could say the same things to guys as well.

How many times have you been disappointed? Has anyone ever hurt you in your past and even betrayed your trust? It’s natural for anyone guy or girl to at times feel weak and in need of someone to hold on to but were there ever times that there was no one there for that?

The truth is life is full of those moments and everyone we meet in this world will at least once bring some sort of disappointment in our lives because no one is perfect. But that doesn’t mean we should close off ourselves to the world and the possibility to love, because then what’s the point of living? There’s got to be something more, that makes sense of all this madness and there is.

Imagine someone who loved you before anyone else did, who cared for you and held you gently in his mind before anyone else could do so in their arms. Has never, nor will ever, hurt you, disappoint you or betray you. He lived and died for you, and gladly offers Himself for you daily to speak with Him. Love unites the two of you, and your pains only strengthen that love when you run to Him. He won’t push you away when you hurt Him nor will he walk away from you when you move further from Him. No one has ever loved you the way He has and others can only imitate it but never surpass it. I’m sure you know who I’m talking about, but this is only the tip of the iceberg and the more you think about it the stronger you’ll feel the pull to be closer to Him.

Sure some of you may not be called to religious life and take Christ Himself as your spouse but if you do not know the love He has for you and, in some way, reciprocate that love then any other attempts to love will always fall short of perfection.

He’s waiting for you and has been waiting for you since the beginning of time. Take a moment and imagine all the planning that had to be done to bring you into this world and understand it was not by chance that you were created. Daily he perpetuates or continues the offering of Himself because he desires to be united to you, accepted by you and give you the peace and love that only comes from Him.

He has given you all the means and asks you like he did to St. Peter, “come.”