Make a Beginning

“Commitment is doing what you said you would do, after the feeling you said it in, has passed.” St. Camillus de Lelis

Often, we say things that we would like to do but do not get around to doing them. Talk is cheap. We tell people many things that we want to do but never really do them. There has been a trip that I have wanted to go on for a long time and the time never seemed right. It is a difficult world to travel in, but we must trust. When I began grad school some time ago, I did feel it was the right direction initially. I kept going. At several points, I wanted to quit. My friends reminded me that we finish what we start. 

"Ours to make a beginning, His to bring it to completion; ours to offer what we can, His to finish what we cannot." — St. Alphonsus Liguori

Recently, I was reading about St. Paul of the Cross. He was one of six in his family to survive infancy. He was the oldest of 16. He felt called to something greater and he kept looking for it. He could have been taken in by a wealthy family, but he wanted nothing of this world. He was introduced to someone at a dance so he could marry money. That did not work. He wanted to fight for the Venetian Republic but upon entering a church, he realized that there was something much greater waiting for him. He was sent to a hermitage and then to the Church of St. Stephen in Castellazzo, Italy. His brother was even with him. One event led to another. Eventually, he founded the Congregation of the Discalced Clerks of the Most Holy Cross and Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ (Passionists). To begin a new order is not easy. Mother Teresa left her order to begin the Missionaries of Charity. There are many saints who were called to begin new communities. This is how the Church grew over the centuries. The blood of the Martyrs, the new communities and the missionaries were witnesses for many people and are still witnesses for us today. Blessed Maria Theresia Ledochowska grew up in wealth. She wanted to live for something more, and when she heard about the horror of slavery, she threw herself into efforts to abolish it. Help followed her and she began a religious community also. 

"Let us live, then, absorbed in the thought and the desire of that immense ocean of felicity which we are to enjoy in heaven." St. Paul of the Cross

In my work, I hear many questions about the future. We are all looking for something more from life. It does not get handed to us. This ‘something’ does not fall from the sky. We need to go looking for our life that is waiting. God has prepared much for us. Are we even looking for it, or are we sitting back, waiting for something to happen? There are many examples we can follow. We need to ask and we need to verify. There is no need to make a bucket list and think that we need to do certain things to be happy. I would say that we need to listen and look for the answers. We need to pay attention.

"If we wish to make any progress in the service of God we must begin every day of our life with new eagerness." — St. Charles Borromeo