THREE WORDS OF WISDOM

COME FOLLOW ME

St. Peter-Our first Holy Father

In today's Gospel, we hear Jesus calling Peter to follow him. “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.”  As baptized Christians, we know that God is calling us to be "fishers of men",too. Do we live out this baptismal calling to evangelize and spread the Good News, or are we content to keep our faith to ourselves?

Jesus called Peter and his successors to be our spiritual leaders and holy fathers who teach us the faith and keep us on the true path to union with God through following his Son, Jesus Christ. We know that this path is narrow, painful, and difficult. We need the teachings of the Church to light our way and guide us.

We must be formed by the Holy Spirit in order to be his missionaries in spreading the Good News. We must be willing to learn and study our faith, the teachings of the Church. This mission of evangelization, the great commission of Jesus to "go and preach to all nations" is the core sacrament of the Church. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states:

#738-Thus the Church's mission is not an addition to that of Christ and the Holy Spirit, but is its sacrament: in her whole being and in all her members, the Church is sent to announce, bear witness, make present, and spread the mystery of the communion of the Holy Trinity:  (the Catechism then quotes St. Cyril of Alexandria)

All of us who have received one and the same Spirit, that is, the Holy Spirit, are in a sense blended together with one another and with God. For if Christ, together with the Father's and his own Spirit, comes to dwell in each of us though we are many, still the Spirit is one and undivided. He binds together the spirits of each and every one of us,...and makes all appear as one in him. For just as the power of Christ's sacred flesh unites those in whom it dwells into one body, I think that in the same way the one and undivided Spirit of God, who dwells in all, leads all into spiritual unity.

As Secular Carmelites we are called to be witnesses in the world to  our charism of contemplative prayer. Why? I believe this question is answered directly by the teachings of the Church in the excerpt of the Catechism I have quoted above:

in her whole being and in all her members, the Church is sent to announce, bear witness, make present, and spread the mystery of the communion of the Holy Trinity.

Can you hear Bl. Elizabeth of the Trinity telling us the same thing through her writings? We see her whole life caught up in this mystery, this indwelling of the Holy Trinity. She evangelizes and  spreads the Good News of this Holy Communion of the Trinity living and working in us, the members of the Church. 

Let us be faithful to our Carmelite calling of being witnesses in the world. Perhaps it is a quiet witness of being faithful to our Carmelite promises. Perhaps it's a quiet and gentle witness of sharing our Carmelite teachings with others. Let us remember, that whatever we do, we do in the name of the Lord. May it all be done in charity and with the grace and light and strength from the Holy Spirit, who forms us into one body and one Spirit in Christ.

COME FOLLOW ME

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Peace be with you!

Rosemarie, ocds

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