What is my mission?

 By Beryle Baterina

An Allegory of Man (Wikipedia)

God sends all of us to mission.  A mission to share my faith especially to those who do not know Christ. Although the thought of that really scares me.  I am afraid of what may happen.  But I must remember that God is always with me.  He gives me knowledge and confidence that I may fulfill His plan.  My prayer would be to have a strong heart to do the will of God.  I have felt what I needed to do.  And I also wanted it.  I am just afraid,  I have to be strong in my prayers to overcome the fear to move forward and to go where God wants me to be.

"Send me Lord and I will go to the place you have prepared
send me Lord and I will speak with the power of your word
send me Lord and I will seek your awesome love and majesty
Lord send me, Lord send me, I will go..." - taken from the song, Send Me

I am a sinful person, but Jesus died on the cross to save me, to save us.  Now, I have to fulfill my mission - to grow in my faith and share it with others.  I am not so sure if there is already a growth in my faith but I am already accepting that I did became better (even just a teeny, tiny bit) these past few months.   The truth is, I cannot really tell if there was change in me.  I can never be perfect and I am always a work in progress.  I have faith that I am making progress.


Beryl originally posted this at her blog Beryl Baterina.

Do you know why God made you?

by Patricia

Jesus and the Children from the L.A. Cathedral Mausoleum (photo in Public Domain).

 

Why did God create you?  Do you ever think about that?  I do.

Many years ago while on retreat, I wrote across the top of the first page of my journal:  Dear God, what is my purpose in life?  Who am I supposed to be?

I prayed all weekend for an answer, bringing my question continually before the Lord.  But I never heard an answer…and I was somewhat disappointed.

But, now years later, I realize that I didn’t hear the answer because I was listening for the wrong kind of answer.  I wanted something specific and concrete.  I wanted to leave my retreat with a plan…maybe even a list which I could check off.  Here is what God has sent me to do.  Here is how I will make a difference in the world.   I wanted a mission.

But as the years passed, and life moved on with its sorrows and its joys, I began to hear the answer I sought.  It is always the same, and it takes root deeper and deeper in my heart, and the joy it imparts is a reassuring certainty.

Today, I heard a young woman describe her very first visit to the Eucharistic Adoration chapel in her parish.

She went in, not knowing what to expect.  And to her amazement, she saw a type of vision…one which arose within her imagination.  She saw a large tree and beneath it she was seated with Jesus.  To her great surprise, Jesus carved His initials and hers in the tree, and then He drew a heart around it.

He looked at her so tenderly and told her, “You could never understand how very much I love you.  Fall in love with Me.  I so much want you to fall in love with Me.”

Then she went on to say that God  always knows just what we need to hear, and the way we need to hear it.

And, I understood.  So many times in the adoration chapel, I have had a similar “vision,” only in mine, I am a little girl, all dressed up with ribbons in her hair, and I am snuggled in the arms of Jesus, or sometimes standing on his lap, looking into His eyes, or hugging His neck so tight.  And….I am so very peaceful, both in the scene, and as I quietly sit there being loved.

Getting out of the car, after hearing the young woman’s encounter with Jesus, I looked up at the blue sky and the trees in their tender spring leaves.  I listened to the bird songs of some cardinals nearby.  I gazed at all of this and with wide-eyed wonder, marveled that the God Who had created it all, and Who sustains a world teeming with life and beauty, would so love me, and you….would so love us above all of His material creation combined.  Yet, I know that He does…because He told us so.


Continue reading at Patricia's blog  I Want to See God.