A week of prayer for Christian unity began January 18. Please keep this intention in your prayer: that we all may be one.
Today is also Salvatorian Sunday at St. Pius. As I explained in the January Invitation, we are asked to contribute to a special collection to support the Society of the Divine Savior, which has supplied religious men for ministry since this parish’s beginning. More information can be found in this bulletin and there is a link for contributing on our parish web page. I ask you, please, to support this collection and be as generous as you can. Thank you.
This weekend we begin Ordinary time which goes to the end of November and the feast of Christ the King, except for an interruption for the Lenten and Easter seasons. During this year we will learn Jesus’ values and how he lived them out through the Gospel of Matthew.
Our readings today remind us that we are called, each of us, from our mother’s womb (the first reading).
There are two aspects of this call. The first is general for everyone and that is to be holy, as Paul reminds the Corinthians. To be holy means to live Gospel values, acting and relating to others as Christ did.
Second, each of us has a unique call. Paul was called to be an apostle, John the Baptist was called to testify to the Christ, and Jesus was called to be the Messiah, baptizing with the Spirit. To what am I called? To be a spouse? A parent? A religious? A teacher? It is a multifaceted question and touches various aspects of our lives. But no matter what we are called to be or do, underlying is the call to be holy, thus bringing the light of Christ into this darkened world.
No one’s call is better or more important than another person’s call; it is simply that person’s unique call. But answering that unique call by building a personal relationship with the Lord and listening to where the Spirit is leading, is what our Faith is all about.
I invite us this week to spend some time reflecting on the unique call each of us has received, thanking God and asking for the grace always to follow where the Spirit is leading us.
