My Thoughts on 11/05/2021

Three years ago Pope Francis wrote a letter entitled Gaudate et Exultete reflecting on the call to holiness, and how we can respond to God’s call to holiness today. “My modest goal” in the Exhortation, Pope Francis says, “is to repropose the call to holiness in a practical way for our own time.”

What does being holy mean for me and you today? For me it is discovering the reason why I am alive. Being holy is living the life that God created me to live.

Saint John Newman expressed this in his well known mediation.

“God has created me to do Him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission. I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons.

He has not created me for naught. I shall do good; I shall do His work. I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it if I do but keep His commandments.

Therefore, I will trust Him, whatever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him, in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him. If I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. He does nothing in vain. He knows what He is about. He may take away my friends. He may throw me among strangers. He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide my future from me. Still, He knows what He is about.”

Let us give ourselves time to reflect on what God is asking of us. Help my Lord to grow in holiness.

Next month, at the Jesuit Church in Farm Street, London, there is music based on the words of Saint John Henry Newman.

Here is a promotional video that tells you more about it.