When 8850 Form Vocational 2016-2023

Music. We'll begin with a reading from Saint Therese of Lisieux, the Little Flower. She writes, "Since my longing for martyrdom was powerful and unsettling, I turned to the epistles of St. Paul in the hope of finally finding an answer. By chance, the 12th and 13th chapters of the first epistle to the Corinthians caught my attention. In the first section, I read that not everyone can be an apostle and that the eye cannot be the hand. Even with such an answer revealed before me, I was not satisfied. I did not find peace. I persevered in the reading and did not let my mind wander until I found this encouraging theme: 'Set your desires on the greater gifts, and I will show you the way which surpasses all others.' For the impossible insists that the greater gifts are nothing at all without love, and that the same love is surely the best path leading directly to God. At length, I found peace in my mind." She concludes, "When I hadn't looked upon the mystical body of Christ, the Church, I recognized myself in none of the members which Saint Paul described. And what is more, I desired to distinguish myself more favorably within the whole body. Love appeared to me and to be the very hinge of my vocation. Indeed, I knew that the Church had a body composed of various members, but in this body, the necessary and more noble member was not lacking. I knew that the Church had a heart, and that such a heart appeared to be aflame with love. I knew that one love drove the members of the Church to action, that if this love were extinguished, the apostles would no longer proclaim the Gospel, the martyrs would no longer shed their...