If you’ve ever gone to or prepared for your best friend’s wedding, you know it is a gift. Memories flash across in the midst of the ceremony. It’s beautiful to witness the current reality; however, it’s a gift to see it in light of the events that lead each to the alter. You know the inside jokes, the almost breakups, and the heroic and selfless decisions to love amidst confusion, chaos, and daily living. You know the special smile that comes when one thinks of the other, the voice inflection and the twinkle in one’s eye when sharing a story recounting the personal love of one’s lover and friend. It is a gift to see the transformation love brings about. Both the transformation that comes from falling in love and from choosing to continue to love is as beautiful as the poets describe.
A best friend’s wedding is a joyous celebration so heading to the Basilica for six of my best friends’ wedding was momentous. If you’ve never been to the profession of religious vows, do it. The joyful witness of self sacrificing love made often times by young, courageous, talented, men and women is inspiring. They sacrifice the goods of this world for the sake of the kingdom. They answer the call to be laborers in the vineyard. They exemplify radical love which defeats the secular cultures’ anthem to only give in accordance to what one will get back, to give some of oneself but not all. Rather, withdrawing from the illusory demands of keeping up with the Jones’, they lay down their lives (literally as they prostrate themselves on the cathedral floor), all of themselves. They sacrifice their present and their future and they submit their past, whatever it entails, to the mercy of God. They offer their hearts, gifts, and talents to their community and our Church. To say I am in awe of these women is an understatement. They lay down their lives so others might live. Not just for the sake of the unborn and marginalized but for all. They lay down so that we may each may hear the resounding and splendid Truth that we are called to live Life in abundance and that we are each uniquely and passionately loved by our Lord.
So like any best friend’s wedding there is the beauty of the service and the inspiration of the event, which draws forth the heart. And yet when it’s your best friend’s wedding you see the universal gift of the vocation with a particular love for the specific individual, which results in the only proper response
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to say a little prayer for you.
May we imitate their selfless abandon and may we trust God’s Providence that He allows us to respond as He calls because it is He that first loved us. Let us trust His plans are good (Jer. 29:11), all works for the good of those who love Him (Rom. 8:28), and that He desires us to abide in His love so that our joy may be complete. For whatever we give to Him is returned one hundred fold. Let us be cheerful givers trusting the will of God never leads us outside the grace of God. John Cardinal O'Connor, pray for us!
Discernment can be something we want to put off, tending to think of all that we'd give up. The Lord gives and He gives. Discernment can be the greatest gift no matter the "outcome." The gifts of discerning religious life, because thats an invitation God offered to me years ago, resulted in friends around the world and Sisters in every essence of the word.
Is He Calling you? Call a vocations director. It might just help you find what you're looking for.
Verso l’alto,
Kathryn Grace
I say a little prayer for you
You broke the bonds
And you loosed the chains
Carried the cross
Of my shame
Oh my shame
You know I believe it
And you loosed the chains
Carried the cross
Of my shame
Oh my shame
You know I believe it
“And nothing again would be casual or small, but everything with Light invested.”
*from the Sister’s medals and a poem on the Annunciation as the Incarnation changes everything.*
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