We are all called to mission. Our lives here on earth do have a purpose. Like so many great Saints, a contemplative life is desired where we meditate in the goodness of God toward us, that we may grow ever thankful, but not to just stay immobile there, but to be recharged that we may go out into the world and live a saintly life of service. 

Just like Saint Peter Julian Eymard or Saint Teresa of Calcutta, who spent daily time in front of the Blessed Sacrament, we are called to contemplation, that we may be emboldened to live our thanksgiving through compassionate action toward our brothers in need.  We are called to be agents of justice, change, and peace. We are called to make the world a better place, one encounter at a time.
 
There is always a possibility that we see only our actions, what we accomplish, as the source of our comfort or the basis of our faith, which would be incorrect. What we do must not be the goal but the result of our relationship with Christ. From connecting to the source of our faith and receiving the grace gifted to us through our relationship with Christ, we can perform the actions of love and mercy with the most ordered and correct intent. We must not forget where our charity, faith, and hope come from. Saint Peter Julian Eymard had it right when he founded his order to be contemplative and apostolic.

​We receive much from our relationship with Christ so that we may share of our plentiful bounty with those who need us. In the correct and ordered way, from our relationship with Christ, we are able to love more, for we are definitively not loved any less. We are not diminished but enhanced. God does that for us. He holds us lovingly in His hand.

Without cost, we are receiving. From Christ’s banquet, we are fed, and there in His presence, we are nourished and looked after. Our presence united with His allows us to commune with the infinite and peek into God’s mysteries. There He shares with us Grace, a gift to take with us if we accept it. In our acceptance of His gift, we become His to guide and command. This is how we become His instruments of grace to the world.

When we are sent, it is not always the same way. Some of us are sent to nourish the domestic Church and raise families in love, hope, and faith. Some of us are sent to sit by the tabernacles of the world in faithful adoration, sentinels of the light of Christ. Some are sent to the streets to care for the indigents and the lost. Some are sent to hospitals and homes to care for the sick and the infirm... We are all sent into service as Marthas from the love we receive as Marys. One is not more important than the other. Our higher calling is to do both...
 
As we look into our lives in the light of Jesus’s call to service, let us always remember what Saint Paul said, “I will most gladly spend and be utterly spent for your sakes. If I love you more, am I to be loved less?”
 
Let us pray: Lord, let us be in Your presence that we may look into your heart. Take our hearts and make them one with yours, that our love may be as your love, and that as we all go through this earthly life, we may be able to share your heart with all we encounter. Help us so that we may love more. Amen.

​Being a good and faithful follower of Christ requires quite a bit from us. We are called to Sainthood, which is no idle call and, most definitively, not an easy path to tread. I look to the lives of the Saints and how they all, in their own and unique ways, lived their lives trying to attain that closeness to God by faithfully following Christ’s teachings and example, by attempting to love the way Christ loves, by trying to offer their lives emulating the way Christ did, not by dying on a literal Cross, but by following Christ in taking the cross of denial of self for the love of God and Man.
 
Our Mother Church gathers all of this information so that we can now read and understand how that heroic denying of self works and how it defines that saintly life from Saint to Saint. There is not only one set way to emulate Christ but many paths that follow the will of God. Which path is ours? Well, that is determined by discernment. Maybe a saintly way already tread by a Saint fits us like a glove. There are, for all of us, Saints awaiting our call for guidance, and that follows from the fact that we have many charisms within us as a gift from the Holy Spirit.
 
The word “charism” is an interesting one.  It is a Greek word that literally means “favor” or “special gift.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines charisms as follows:

​These gifts from the Holy Spirit are given to us to help build up the Kingdom of God, and they are how we are made “fit and ready” to follow the road to Sainthood.

​Charisms are gifts of the Holy Spirit given to us specifically for our life mission of love and mercy. These are our gifts, and the mixing of the gifts with who we are, our personality, do help us discern our possible path to Sainthood. We all have a few charisms, and these “gifts and talents” often fit into one of the following categories:

These gifts and talents are meant to be used. They are part of our toolbox to do our duties on our path to Heaven, and what happens if we do an excellent job in stewarding our charisms?

But we know from the lives of the Saints that even with the charisms, life in Christ while on this Valley of Tears is difficult, so we have to persevere in faith.

We live in the hope that just like the Saints, we can endure on our path to Heaven. We do this by using our gifts, living faithfully and in hope. We do this by living God’s love in our lives and by pleading for help, for we know we depend upon God’s love and grace.

Let us call upon those like us who have gone through the saintly life before us. Let us find a few that can guide us on the path, ones that share our charisms, and ask for their help and guidance. They are now looking upon the light of our Lord’s face. Let us ask for their intercession for us and those we love, that we may follow their example, making it through this earthly life to join them in Heaven.
 
Let us pray: Heavenly Father, I present to you my dear grandparents, who lived a saintly life worthy of emulation and left me too soon when they passed from this earthly life. Grant them eternal rest in your presence, and, if they are already in Heaven, may they intercede, along with all the Saints of Heaven, for my family and me and for all that need intercession today. May they help us by their prayers to be guided along the path to Sainthood. Lord, you know our hearts. Help us who need you, but that Your will be done. Amen.

            
​It is so often that I feel weak and tired mentally, physically, and spiritually. I think many of us do, for we try to do so much and end up doing so little.  Experience tells us this is a familiar feeling, especially during Holy Week. During prayer, I attempt to visualize myself with the beloved disciples of Christ in Gethsemane, trying to accompany Jesus. And if I am sincere, I see myself falling asleep just like the other disciples, for I am tired, human, and weak. Christ himself must have been very tired indeed, yet he endured. Could I really not spend one hour awake with Him?

I then imagine Christ arrested and all the disciples running away while the prosecutors look at me and ask me if I am a disciple of Christ. Would I deny Him who is the source of all good? Would I be scared to say that I love Him?
 
And then I visualize Christ falling three times on his journey up Calvary. I look upon Simon of Cyrene, who was compelled by the Roman soldier's sword to reluctantly help Jesus carry the Cross, and I ask myself whether I would also not want to help carry His Cross unless forced?  Looking at Christ, would I have the courage to accept my own cross without reproach?  And as I see Him hung upon His Cross, would I also be able to accept my death without resentment? Would I be able to die asking that my tormentors be forgiven?  Or would I be like Peter and run, afraid and denying Him who is the source of my love, faith, and hope? Also, like Peter, even if I ran, would I have the humility and perseverance to return and be steeled by the grace of forgiveness?
 
I just don't know, but I pray with all I am that we can all be good and courageous disciples, but we will only know the answer after we are tested... Is this at least a prevalent desire in our hearts? That we can abide as Christ abides? And accept as He accepted, live as He lived, and die as He died if we are ever called to? Blessed are those who believe, abide, accept, live, and die in Him.
 
We know that Peter was restored and fortified later on. Three times Christ asked whether Peter loved Him. One reaffirmation for every time Peter denied Christ. We know that during Pentecost, by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, Peter became the splendid apostle he was called to be, strengthened to live the mission of love and mercy, even to his death as a martyr. This strength we do have in us through the graces from Baptism.
 
In the Eucharist, Christ lends us again His strength and courage. He inspires us with His love. Let us pray, for the activation of our faith and for the strength of conviction, that we may be courageous in every moment of test and for our perseverance in hope and faith, especially at the last moment before death, that we may endure and abide in Him, who died for us.
 
As we prepare to celebrate Christ's victory over death and the redemption of humanity this Easter, may we grow courageous in our conviction and offer our lives to God so that strengthened like Peter, we may become, through Christ, who God calls us to be.
 
Let us pray: Strengthen us, Lord. Please give us your courage and determination. May we abide in You and become the missionary disciples You call us to be. May we be convicted in Your love and stay faithful until the end. That we may honor You with how we live. Amen.
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