if they know how to pray - Monday of 1st week of Lent

Benedict XVI instructed the bishops of the United States with these words on vocation:  “Young people, if they know how to pray, can be trusted to know what to do with God's call." If they know how to pray.  I am repeating these words of Benedict XVI as you begin to formulate in your minds your application letter for the next formation year.  The undergraduates will submit this to me on March 19.

Everyone of us sooner or later will feel the need to respond to God’s will.  And everyone of us sooner or later will feel the need to do God’s will.  You cannot escape the allure, so to say, you cannot escape the push and the pull.  So I would like you to be aware of your attractions, be aware of your boredom, name your excitements, identify your repulsions.  Whenever you are here in the seminary are there more repulsions or are there more excitements.  Out on a weekend break does the seminary draw you back or does coming back make you drag your feet?  What is it that bores you in here and what are the activities and things that attract you in here?

These are the pushes and the pulls that draw you to do God’s will.  If you are keen you can never escape the allure of God’s will.

When we say in the Our Father,Your will be done, we are acknowledging something natural for us - that we are hardwired to happiness.  You cannot escape doing God’s will because God’s will is essentially your happiness and we are all hardwired to seek our own happiness.

Everyone of us sooner or later will feel the need to respond to God’s will.  You cannot escape the allure, you cannot escape the push and the pull.  So be aware of your attractions, be aware of your boredom, name your excitements, identify your repulsions because these may indicate God’s will.