“Dear young people, let me now ask you a question. What will you leave to the next generation? Are you building your lives on firm foundations, building something that will endure? Are you living your lives in a way that opens up space for the Spirit in the midst of a world that wants to forget God, or even rejects Him in the name of a falsely-conceived freedom?…How are you using the gifts you have been given, the “power” which the Holy Spirit is even now prepared to release within you? What legacy will you leave to young people yet to come? What difference will you make?”
Blessed John Paul II, the great friend of youth, understood the greatness of their desires. And he told them to never sell their dreams cheaply (see full quote below). Having the great advantage of glimpsing into the richness of these dreams over the course of the last week, I understand on a deeper level JPII’s exhortation: REFUSE TO SELL YOUR DREAMS CHEAPLY.
Dear young people, do not be content with anything less than the highest ideals! Do not let yourselves be dispirited by those who are disillusioned with life and have grown deaf to the deepest and most authentic desires of the heart. The time has come to re-propose wholeheartedly to everyone this high standard of ordinary Christian living. Refuse to sell your dreams cheaply. Watch out for the dangerous ways that lead to passing joys and satisfaction. Deepen your relationship with God through prayer. Prayer spreads Divine energy. It makes us live in a new way and gives rise to a revolutionary evangelical style. – Blessed John Paul II
My prayer is that the joy you experience regarding the “come & see” and “solitude & Service” days will be multiplied a 1000 fold with new and true vocations for what I think of as “God’s little band of angels.”
You could never know how desperately we “out here” need and depend on your prayers & thank God for each one of you who said YES JESUS
My love & thanks to all
Nice crowd of girls at your ‘Come and See’! Maybe there will be a future vocation or two among them….
That said, I ask (as a fifty-something single woman), ‘Where do I belong? Where is MY place?’ Not only do young people ask that, but us ‘older folks’ wonder, too!
I’ve become very world-weary in my latter years, and I wish that I could have served God as a religious when I was younger-I got ‘cold feet’ and didn’t go into the Carmelites.
Yet us ‘older women’ (post-35ers) aren’t even considered for religious life in most of the ‘good’ Orders. We are ‘persona non grata’, the ‘great invisible demographic’, just because we are….TOO OLD!
WHY ARE OLDER WOMEN ALWAYS SHUT OUT?
(No offense, dear Sisters…this is just a beef I have that continues to nag at me)
Barb in NY
I just discovered your weblog and love it; I wish you the greatest happiness in Jesus as you seek to hear Him and love Him. Please say a prayer for me now and again.
Brother Therese-Bernard.