Step 2: Accept God’s love and His choice for you

Pope St. John Paul II said that, “every vocation to the priestly ministry is an extraordinary gift of God’s love.” The second step in exploring your vocation is opening up to that love. He told His Apostles and now He is saying to you: “It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you.”

Thus it is that receiving His love and our vocation are one in the same thing. Because this love is total and complete, without regard to our past mistakes, weaknesses, ignorance and confusion, it is only just that we give everything we can in return.

As the great poet Dante Alighieri wrote, “In his will is our peace.” This is often the step that is most challenging to even the faithful Christian. To say “Yes” to God without condition is to put our lives radically at His disposal. When we say, “Not my will but your will be done,” we are handing over to Him our plans, our ideas, our goals, our very selves. This can be frightening, but it is only in His Will that we will find peace in this life and in the world to come.

His Presence in the Most Blessed Sacrament is a primary way in which we encounter and accept His love and then give ourselves in return. In every Mass, He invites us to unite ourselves to Him in His Sacrifice on Calvary. In the Liturgy of the Word, He cuts us open with His Word from Holy Scripture which is “sharper than any two edged sword”, so that He can pour His very self into us. In the Liturgy of the Eucharist we see the Word become Flesh before our very eyes, and then receive Him into our flesh in Holy Communion. In every Mass, we join our Blessed Lord in His act of sacrificing Himself for the salvation of the world, and receive from the altar His very Body and Blood. The Mass is the primary place where this giving and acceptance of His love happens. To find your vocation, going to Mass faithfully and often is indispensable.