Vocation Holy Hour

Introduction: Most Holy Trinity Father Son and Holy Spirit living within our hearts we adore you and praise you. Thank you Lord for you have created us in your own image and likeness. We thank you for the wonder of our being we surrender our life with all its, past present and future. Oh most Holy Trinity may you be praised and adore in our life and in the life of every human being. Be still and know that I am God (3) It is in the stillness of ones heart that God is experienced in its fullness. The depth of God’s love is easy to be experienced than to be expressed. Dear Sisters as we silence ourselves let each fibre of our being be touched by God’s love. Let us allow ourselves to take leap in to his ocean of love. Let us ask Jesus to keep us in tune with his Spirit. So that we may follow Him faithfully till the end of time. Let us give an expression to this feeling by listening to a bhajan. Cassette The theme of today’s vocation Holy hour is “Accept your uniqueness”, our life belongs to God because he is the giver of it. If our life is extended by a few days it means that God’s plan regarding our life has not yet reached its completion. We may love our life but when see the life of other people we must be able to be happy with them and be ready to help them if necessary. All of us are only pilgrims passing through this world. We have many opportunities to use our gifts of mind and heart to bring about God’s Kingdom to our broken and fragmented world. In the world we are only for the time being. Story from the book. Once upon a time a farmer ploughing his field came across a beautiful framed mirror. It was an age when mirrors were not commonly used. Mirrors were used only by the rich and the famous. The farmer had never seen a mirror before. He cleaned the mirror and was astonished to behold the handsome face of his father in his youth. He ran to the parish priest and showed him the mirror and said, “Look at the portrait of my father. He looks so handsome.” The parish priest, who had never seen a mirror before, took the mirror and saw himself and exclaimed, “But Leo this is not your father, this is the portrait of my saintly predecessor. See how Holy he looks!” The farmer took the mirror from the priest and said, “But he looks like my father.” At that moment, the farmer’s wife entered the room and she took the mirror in her hands and looked at herself in the mirror, but in her ignorance she screamed. “Who is this funny woman you are gaping at? Are you having another woman in your life and such an ugly creature?! Each one of them in the story was looking at himself and herself in different ways. One looked at himself as holy and another as someone handsome. The person who saw herself as ugly was angry, upset and deeply hurt. Deep inner silence and self – awareness leads to a loving acceptance of who we really are. The lack of acceptance leads to depression and other related problems, like anger, hatred, envy and jealousy. Do I look at myself as someone beautiful or ugly, as useful or useless, as strong or weak? I am constantly threatened by people who appear to be smarter than I am or who seem to be more gifted. The more we are able to observe ourselves lovingly and accept our physical intellectual, emotional and spiritual structure, the more open to life we become and enjoy living our life to the full. Cassette Time for reflection Two men went fishing. One was an experienced fisherman, the other wasn’t. Every time the experienced fisherman caught a big fish, he put it in his ice chest to keep it fresh. Whenever the inexperienced fisherman caught a big fish, he threw it back. The experienced fisherman watched this go on all day and finally got tired of seeing the man waste good fish. “Why do you keep throwing back all the big fish you catch?” he asked. The inexperienced fisherman replied, “I only have a small frying pan”. Sometimes, like that fisherman, we throw away the big plans, big dreams, the big opportunities that God gives us. We look at ourselves as a small frying pan. Our faith is too small. God asks us to learn to look at ourselves in a big way. We have to learn from our Blessed Mother Mary to look at ourselves as God’s wonderful creation. Mary could exclaim: “My soul glories the Lord and my spirit exults in God my Saviour. He has looked upon his servant in her lowliness and people forever will call me blessed. The mighty One has done great things for me, Holy is his name!” (Lk 1:46-49) Mary in her humility was able to accept the fact that God had created her for a great purpose and she could proclaim that God had done and was doing great things for her. Self – acceptance is the act of befriending ourselves and being happy with who we are now. We can also call it self – love or love for self. When the Pharisees asked Jesus, “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied, “You shall love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your soul and with all you strength. This is the first and most important of the commandments. But there is another one very similar to it: you shall love your neighbour as you love yourself” (Mt.22:35-39; Lk.10:25-27; Mk.12:28-31). Self – awareness helps us to accept the best of what we are and also our limitations. We learn to approve who we are, all parts of our being, even the parts we do not like. Acceptance means being nonjudgmental toward ourselves. Jesus does not ask us to hate ourselves; instead he says love others as you love yourself. We cannot really love others until we have accepted ourselves and learnt to love ourselves. This is a triple commandment of love: Love for God, love for self and love for others” Love and acceptance of self is very different from selfishness. Love for self is based on humility. I humbly look at myself as a beautiful gift of God. Like Mary, I am able to see the good things God has done for me and does through me. Selfishness is based on hatred for self. Love for self or loving self – acceptance opens me to look at the beauty and goodness of others. Once we lovingly accept ourselves we are not threatened by others - their beauty intelligence, talents or even material possessions. This feeling fills us with a sense of self – satisfaction that enables one to bring out the best in us. It is said that “If you feel inferior to someone else, it is because of your own beliefs”. Cassette Do you know who the happiest people are? Those who just accept ourselves the way God made them who learn to be happy with what they have and not care what others think. Struggling to live up to ideas that you think are expected of you by your peers puts a real weight on you but there is freedom in humility. If you were honest I think you’d admit that you really admit that you really admire people who have the guts to be themselves to live right, live healthy and have their priorities straight. God loves you the way he made you and you are beautiful in his eyes. We are all unique and special in his eyes. There is no ugliness no matter what we look like. Building self esteem often has a lot to do with your relationship with God. The closer you draw to him and the more at peace you’ll be the more relaxed you’ll be if you are closer to the Lord. You are beautiful because his love and his light shine through. Spend some time in silence and let the Lord speak to you about yourself. Ask him to tell you how he sees you. What your inner beauties are what your inner strengths are what these gifts and abilities that he likes to bring forth that he likes to see you shine for others Let him encourage and then be encouraged by him Prayer: You could have made me perfect Jesus but you did not. Instead you made me just the way you wanted me, to doubt that is to doubt your love, but to realize that is to find perfect peace, security and rest in your love. Take me now just as I am in your heart of hearts. Cassette Lord Jesus we praises and we thank you for you infinite love towards us. Thank you Lord for the gifts of our vocation you have called us to be your own and to send forth. Thank you for calling us from many and keeping us safe as the apple of your eye. We pray for our Congregational family each and every member of our providence. Strengthen us Lord in our vocation grant us good and holy vocation. Inspire the young hearts to respond to your calling bless all the parents to bring up their children in God’s love Vocation Prayer O Jesus good shepherded accept our praise and humble thanks for the vocations which through your spirit you have continually given your church. Assist all Bishops, Priests and missionaries and all consecrated persons, let them be example of a truly evangelical life, watch over the youth in our families and our communities. Grant them promptitude and generosity in following you direct your glance on them today and design to call them give all those called the strength to abandon all for your love and choose you and you alone. Hearken to our prayers o Christ through the intercession of Mary your mother queen and the apostles Amen.