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Congratulations to Mary Swafford!

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National Vocation Awareness Week

I pray the Christmas season and the arrival of the New Year has been a joyful and blessed experience for you. The start of a new year is an opportunity to reflect on where we are in our lives. It is also an opportunity to take action to more fully walk with God and share the Good News with others. One of the ways we can do this is through discernment of our vocation and assisting others with their vocational discernment.

The week of January 9–15 has been designated National Vocation Awareness Week by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. The goal of National Vocation Awareness Week, as stated by Archbishop Robert Carlson of Saint Louis, is to give "parishes across the country a chance to promote vocations through prayer and education." This is a week for each of us to make a more conscious effort to pray for young men and women to hear the call to ordained and consecrated life. It is also an opportunity to be a voice inviting young people to discern their vocation. At the start of the new year, could there be a better resolution than to invite young people to discern their vocation and to pray for those discerning the priesthood and religious life?

Additionally, this week is an opportunity for all of God’s children to reflect on and discern our vocation as priest, vowed religious, deacon, married, or single person. Each one of is called to a vocation. Each one of us is called to live a life of holiness. During National Vocation Awareness Week, we can pause and reflect on our vocation and pray for God’s guidance in living our vocational call. During this week, the Archdiocese of Saint Louis is encouraging all Catholics to undertake the following actions:

Numerous resources are available to assist you in reflecting on your own vocation and in calling young people to vocational discernment. The Diocese of Joliet has a wide range of resources for National Vocation Awareness Week, in both English and Spanish, on their Web site: http://www.vocations.com/. Additionally, the Archdiocese of Saint Louis has provided links to several resources for this week at http://archstl.org/vocations/page/national-vocation-awareness-week. You may also want to look at the resources available from the Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations at http://foryourvocation.org/. Lastly, the following prayer, from The Catholic Youth Prayer Book (Saint Mary’s Press, 2006), is one that you can use as you reflect on your own vocation and one you can share with the young people with whom you minister as you encourage them to discern their own vocations. Consider using this as your personal prayer at the start of each day this week and as a communal prayer at the start of any gathering with young people.

A Simple Prayer
O God:
Open my ears to hear you
and my heart to receive you,
and strengthen my will
that I may follow you.
Amen.

As the new year begins, let us unite in prayer for those discerning their vocation, and let us be an inviting voice encouraging young people to discern what God is calling them to in their lives. I hope you have a joyous and enriching 2011 filled with the love and grace of God As always, I pray that God will continue to bless you and your ministry.

Peace,
Steven McGlaun

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Making Discernment a Way of Life and Stumbling Blocks to Discernment
From An Inside Look: A Leader’s Guide to the Vocations Series

Making Discernment a Way of Life
Use these suggestions to integrate discernment into your life. These ideas challenge the common misperception that vocation discernment is a one-time event.

Explore and be open to options. Think, "My way may not be the only way." Be aware that your own perspective is formed by your personal experiences and that there are many other ways that people grow up and live as adults. Talk to some of these other people.

Get the information necessary to make good choices. Many good paths have been left untaken for lack of understanding and awareness. Search the Web, read a book, or interview someone; become a vocations explorer. Not one minute spent in discovery is wasted.

Learn how to be attentive to the Spirit at all times. At the end of each day, ask yourself four questions:

Find a good mentor, guide, or spiritual director, as well as good companions. Someone once said that a true friend is like a mirror of the self. Mentors, guides, spiritual directors, and friends help us to see ourselves more completely, for better or for worse, and thereby help us to grow.

Pray alone and with others. Effort is what counts when praying, not perfection or style.
The following ideas will get you started:

Develop the art of listening and the art of being quiet. Take time each day to be quiet and reflect on the events of the day to hear ways in which God is speaking to you.

(Adapted from Catherine Bertrand, "On Responding to God’s Call: Points to Consider on Vocations" in Origins, volume 30, number 35, February 15, 2001)

Making Discernment a Way of Life Reproducible Handout

Stumbling Blocks to Discernment

Sometimes discernment can be hampered by the following situations.

Fear and excuses. Often expressed as a lack of readiness or a concern about choosing the wrong vocation, fear and excuses put the discernment process on hold. At such times remember that God gives you a lifetime. Hang in there.

Sense of self. Young people who lack a positive identity may not feel good enough, smart enough, or holy enough to consider a particular vocation. Focusing too much on personal flaws inhibits the ability to set goals and make positive decisions.

Commitment. The choice of a particular path means the exclusion of other options as well as being comfortable within the limits and boundaries of a particular vocation. The absence of an escape clause makes commitment frightening for some.

Opinions of others. Fear of being misunderstood and of standing alone makes some vocational choices intimidating. Without affirmation and the support of others, choices for the future can be hard to make. The societal definition of success runs contrary to being a follower of Christ.

Laziness. Any vocation takes time and energy and comes with a price tag. When it all looks too daunting, remember the old adage, "The lazy person works twice." Sooner or later, forestalling a choice will mean a lot of catchup work.

(Adapted from Catherine Bertrand, "On Responding to God’s Call: Points to Consider
on Vocations" in Origins, volume 30, number 35, February 15, 2001)

Stumbling Blocks to Discernment Reproducible Handout

Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
January 16, 2011
John 1:29-34

Opening Prayer
You may use the following short prayer or the prayer on page 6 of the peer leader's guide, or any member of the group may want to pray in his or her own words.
Jesus, John the Baptist recognized your true identity when, at your baptism, the Holy Spirit came to rest on you and did not leave. We pray that your Holy Spirit will be with us always and help us, through the example of our lives, to point others to you--for you are the way of salvation. Amen.

Context Connection
This Sunday's Gospel continues with the theme from last Sunday--Jesus is the Son of God. John the Baptist proclaims that Jesus is the one sent by God who ranks above all the prophets: "Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, 'After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me'" (1:29-30). The Gospel of John often uses an old symbol, such as the lamb, and attaches new meaning to it. For the Jews, the Passover lamb was a cultic offering that saved the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt. The ritual of offering a sacrificial lamb was a rite of communion and reconciliation. It established anew the Jewish covenantal union with God and among the people of Israel. John calls Jesus the Lamb. However, Jesus is not a cultic offering but is God. Jesus transcends the cultic victim of the lamb of the Old Testament. In the person of Jesus, God enters directly into the human story and offers true reconciliation through the forgiveness of sins.

John the Baptist validates Jesus's true identity further: "I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit'" (1:32-33). John is emphatic that Jesus is the one sent by God, clearly stating what God had revealed to him at Jesus's baptism: "I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God" (1:34). John gives witness to Jesus's true identity and the reason for Jesus's baptism: "that [Jesus] might be revealed to Israel" (1:31). Through a life of prayer, John came to understand that his mission was to reveal to Israel the Messiah, the Son of God. For John, the baptism of Jesus was a profound religious experience because God revealed God's self to him.

Tradition Connection
The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us:
Through the prophets, God forms his people in the hope of salvation, in the expectation of a new and everlasting Covenant intended for all, to be written on their hearts.1 The prophets proclaim a radical redemption of the People of God, purification from all their infidelities, a salvation which will include all the nations.2 Above all, the poor and humble of the Lord will bear this hope. (Paragraph 64)

The prophets kept alive the hope of God's promise--to send a Messiah into the world to restore the relationship with God that was lost through the sin of Adam. Throughout Israel's history, it was the poor and the humble who were able to envision the time of right relationship with God. John the Baptist was the last of the great Old Testament prophets sent to point out to Israel the Messiah in the person of Jesus. John, as the immediate precursor of Jesus, is the one sent by God the Father to prepare the way:
St. John the Baptist is the Lord's immediate precursor or forerunner, sent to prepare his way.3 "Prophet of the Most High," John surpasses all the prophets, of whom he is the last.4 He inaugurates the Gospel, already from his mother's womb welcomes the coming of Christ, and rejoices in being "the friend of the bridegroom," whom he points out as "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world."5 Going before Jesus "in the spirit and power of Elijah," John bears witness to Christ in his preaching, by his Baptism of conversion, and through his martyrdom.6 (Catechism, paragraph 523)
In obedience to the Father's will revealed through Jesus, John accepts his God-given role and offers Jesus his baptism. It is through this event that God chooses to reveal to John that Jesus is the anointed one:

After agreeing to baptize [Jesus] along with the sinners, John the Baptist looked at Jesus and pointed him out as the "Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world."7 By doing so, he reveals that Jesus is at the same time the suffering Servant who silently allows himself to be led to the slaughter and who bears the sin of the multitudes, and also the Paschal Lamb, the symbol of Israel's redemption at the first Passover.8 Christ's whole life expresses his mission: "to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many."9 (Catechism, paragraph 608)

Wisdom Connection
God entrusted John the Baptist with the task of making Jesus known to Israel. John presented Jesus as "the Lamb of God . . . the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit . . . the Son of God" (1:29,33,34). In a very true sense, John the Baptist was the Advent prophet who, in expectant hope, was confident that God would reveal to him the chosen one--the long-awaited Messiah. John understood that his mission was not to accrue a following of disciples and receive honor because of his preaching, but simply to point others to Jesus. To do this John had to be willing to see in every person who came to him to be baptized the potential that that person could be the Christ, the anointed one of God.

The Christian community can learn two important lessons from John the Baptist in this account. First, we must be willing to see in each person we meet the special purpose that God has for that individual in the redemptive work of Jesus--to see Christ in each person. Secondly, we must take seriously, as John did, our call from God to point others to Jesus. At Baptism, we receive a candle lit from the Easter candle as a symbol of the light of Christ in the world. We are asked to take that light and be Christ's presence wherever we go. Thus, we are called to lead others to Jesus through the light of our example--in essence pointing others to Jesus.

Acknowledgments
The scriptural quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Catholic Edition. Copyright © 1993 and 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. All rights reserved.

The quotations labeled Catechism are from the English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church for use in the United States of America. Copyright © 1994 by the United States Catholic Conference, Inc.--Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Used with permission.

The Lord's Prayer is taken from Catholic Household Blessings and Prayers. Copyright © 1988 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Inc., Washington, DC. All rights reserved.

Endnotes cited in quotations from the Catechism of the Catholic Church
1. Cf. Isaiah 2:2-4; Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 10:16.
2. Cf. Ezekiel 36; Isaiah 49:5-6; 53:11.
3. Cf. Acts of the Apostles 13:24; Matthew 3:3.
4. Luke 1:76; cf. 7:26; Matthew 11:13.
5. John 1:29; cf. Acts of the Apostles 1:22; Luke 1:41; 16:16; John 3:29.
6. Luke 1:17; cf. Mark 6:17-29.
7. John 1:29; cf. Luke 3:21; Matthew 3:14-15; John 1:36.
8. Isaiah 53:7,12; cf. Jeremiah 11:19; Exodus 12:3-14; John 19:36; 1 Corinthians 5:7.
9. Mark 10:45.

Blessed Peter Donders

January 14 is the memorial for Blessed Peter Donders.

Blessed Peter Donders stands as a remarkable example of persistence and commitment to the call to priestly vocation. Born in Holland in 1809, he grew up in poverty, rarely attending school. At the age of 22, he entered the seminary, working as a servant while he studied. After ten years of working and studying in the seminary, he was ordained. In 1842 he went to the Dutch colony in Surinam, Dutch Guiana, to evangelize and minister to plantation slaves. He later went to the leper colony of Batavia to minister to the patients. At the age of 57, he joined the Redemptorists order. After making his final vows with the Redemptorists, he returned to Batavia to continue his ministry.

For more information on Blessed Peter Donders, go to http://saints.sqpn.com/saintp0n.htm.