Always reorient your life to Christ

During the last weeks of summer break approaching my return to Saint Gregory the Great Seminary for my final year of college seminary, I had a chance to pray and reflect on the many graces and blessings that I have received so far during my time of formation in Seward, Neb. Most especially, I was gently reminded to reorient myself to a disposition of searching out for and gratefully receiving God’s will for my life, with a greater sense of urgency as I enter my last year at St. Gregory’s. We are invited to reorient our lives to Christ every day, but the past weeks gave me a great opportunity to continue discerning Jesus’ call to the priesthood with two years of seminary completed. 

As a seminarian, the “discernment question” is not something that we ask God every day because we can trust that where Jesus has placed us today is where He desires us to be. In the pattern of seminary life, it’s better to focus on how each day Jesus is calling us to more faithfully live as His disciple than to wonder whether He wants us to someday be one of His priests. In these past weeks, it was helpful when I didn’t get too caught up in the anxiety surrounding the need to have an answer to this question. Instead, the Lord desires for me to entrust myself to His will for my life in my particular vocation through the hands of His Blessed Mother. 

Mary’s faithful yes to God’s will for her life at the Annunciation has been a source of grace and inspiration for me since beginning to discern whether God was calling me to seminary. Her trust in receiving the way which God desired to work through her life is a great example and invitation for all of us. Much like Mary, before we are able to make a gift of ourselves and to love the people God has placed in our lives, we must first receive and experience the infinite love which God first has for us. This sequence of giving after we have received reflects the interior life which our Lord desires for us. We must first recognize the priority of our relationship with God, praising and thanking Him for the many ways His mercies and blessings have touched our lives and asking for continued mercy and graces. 

However, it doesn’t stop there. Grounded in the firm foundation of God’s love, we are called to love others in our life and to receive the love of God through them as well. Over the last few months, this took shape in my life during my summer assignment as I served at St. Catherine’s Parish in Valley City. Silent prayer before the Eucharist, praying the Liturgy of the Hours, and serving or attending Mass were all ways in which I was daily fed and nourished spiritually. Being ordered firstly in God’s love and mercy through prayer and the sacraments, He enables me to make a greater gift of myself than I ever could on my own. 

This summer, doing some physical labor at Maryvale and St. Catherine’s, partaking in parish meetings, and serving at several Catholic youth camps was made possible because of the love which I experienced in prayer and from others. I found this pattern of sharing with others the love which God has shown me to be very life-giving this summer. Some days were more exciting than others and temptations to follow my own will were always present, but trusting God and making small acts of faith every day allowed our Lord’s faithfulness to take root in my life. 

As I prepare for the start of my final year of college seminary, I hope to continue making small acts of faith to allow God’s will and His love to work in my life today as a seminarian, whether it be somewhere in the Diocese of Fargo or at St. Gregory’s in Nebraska. Every day, God is asking me to share the love which He has shown to me. “I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another” (John 13:34).