Special Remembrance today...

My thoughts today center around two quotes from Thomas Merton. The first is from his book, New Seeds of Contemplation and the second is from the book, Thoughts in Solitude.

“Our vocation is not simply to be, but to work together with God in the creation of our own life, our own identity, our own destiny....To work out our identity in God.” (New Seeds of Contemplation)

“Ask me not where I live or what I like to eat . . . Ask me what I am living for and what I think is keeping me from living fully that.” (Thoughts in Solitude)

I picked these two quotes today because it is the 33rd Anniversary of my ordination to the priesthood and I am hoping that during my life especially over these last 33 years I have worked with God to find my identity and that I am truly living for Jesus even though at times my humanness, my struggles, my faults and failings get in the way of my friendship with God and in my service to others.

As I celebrate this day, I turn to my good friend, St. Paul, for guidance and strength in the hope that I will always live every aspect of my life in faith, discourse, knowledge, all earnestness, and in the love of God as it is found in our Lord Jesus Christ. And that I will always excel in the gracious act of love that God has given to me by making sure my love for God and others is always genuine.

As I celebrate today I pray for all who have touch my life especially during the last 33 years! Thank you all for helping me be the man of faith, the Passionist, the preacher and priest that I am today even in the midst of my faults and failings. May I always serve you out of God’s love.

I leave you with a prayer today that have been a guiding light for me through out these last 33 years...Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding and my entire will, all I have and call my own. You have given all to me. To you, Lord, I return it. Everything is yours; do with it what you will. Give me only your love and your grace. That is enough for me. (A prayer by St. Ignatius Loyola)

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