The Vocation to Holiness - Auspice Maria Ep 24
Follow the Maine Catholic Podcast on:
Transcript:
Well, welcome back to the Auspice Maria podcast. My name is Bishop James Ruggieri of the Diocese of Portland in Maine. Thank you again for joining me. And again, a special shout out to my producer, Jake, and to all his help for producing this podcast. This week I want to share a little bit about vocations, but talk about really sort of from two perspectives. One is experiential, and one is more a little bit of reflective. But first, of course, just invoking the Holy Spirit to aid and assist me as I do my best to serve the Lord through this podcast.
Lord God, thank you for this opportunity. Holy Spirit, inspire us. All who are listening, please stir within the hearts of all your faithful the fire of your love. We ask all this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Over the past weeks, I've had the opportunity to spend some time with priests, youth, and young men, in particular at two gatherings, one at the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Lewiston, and another at Holy Martyrs Church in Falmouth. Both evenings followed a beautiful rhythm: prayer, dinner, and conversation. In Lewiston, we prayed evening prayer together before sharing a meal. In Falmouth, there was a holy hour with benediction before dinner and a great discussion afterward.
Both events drew boys and young men of varied ages, many altar servers, others just beginning to ask questions about how God might be calling them. The conversations were lively and very sincere. One of the questions that really stood out to me was, "If someone is thinking about the priesthood, what's the next step?" That is really a wonderful question. And it's a reminder that discernment always begins with a question, a stirring in the heart, a desire to know God's will.
For anyone listening who might be asking that same question, allow me to say this. We are blessed in our diocese to have two very dedicated people serving in the vocations office: our vocations director, Father Brad Moran, and his associate director, Father Erin Donlon. Both of these priests are excellent resources for young men who are discerning a call to the priesthood. Their contact information is on the diocesan website, and Jake will put a link in the episode notes.
At present, the Diocese of Portland and Maine has seven seminarians preparing for the priesthood. And I invite everyone listening to pray for them. Pray that they continue to grow in wisdom, courage, and holiness as they continue to discern a vocation to the priesthood to serve God's people. These recent gatherings that I mentioned at the beginning of the show reminded me of something very essential. Vocation is always about relationship. It begins with listening to God's voice and it unfolds in love and service.
That leads directly into today's topic, the other topic, our vocation to holiness. The vocation to holiness begins with awe. A-W-E, yes, awe, before the mystery of the human person. The psalmist captures this wonder beautifully when he prays, “What is man that You are mindful of him, and a son of man that You care for him?” (Psalm 8:5).
That question is right out of Psalm number eight, verse five. When we pause to ask that question, we're really standing before the mystery of who we are and why we exist.
The call to holiness isn't about ambition or achievement. It's about God's initiative, His love that calls us into being and invites us to share His life. Every person listening right now, no matter where you are in life, has been called to holiness. That's not an unreachable ideal, or something reserved for a few. It's the common vocation of all who are baptized, all who bear the image of God. Holiness means allowing God's Spirit within us to mold us and shape us more and more like Christ so that the Father's love can shine through us.
The saints are proof of what happens when ordinary people cooperate with extraordinary grace. They were not perfect. They were people with struggles, doubts, and weaknesses. But they were open to God's action in their lives. And that made all the difference.
Now, if we're honest, the idea of becoming a saint can make us uneasy. We know our own failings too well. We might think, "That's not for me. I'm too weak, too sinful, too ordinary." But Jesus reminds us otherwise: reminds us otherwise: “For human beings it is impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God.” (Mark 10:27) That quote is right from Mark chapter 10, verse 27. It's a wonderful quote. I love it, and I recall it often: All things are possible for God. The path to holiness is possible precisely because it depends on grace. It's not about perfection in a human sense. It's about openness. It's about saying yes to God one day at a time.
Of course, we can't ignore the reality of sin. The Church teaches that each of us carries the wound of original sin, which we call concupiscence. Original sin is washed away in baptism, but concupiscence remains. Concupiscence, a strange word, not used often. But concupiscence is the inclination toward selfishness or sin.
In other words, it's that interior pull in the human person that says, "I'll do things my way." It's the voice that resists love, that wants to receive but hesitates to give.
All of us can think of moments when we've looked back and said, "Why did I do that? What was I thinking?" Well, that's the reality of concupiscence. Yet even there, Grace is stronger. God's mercy is greater than our weakness.
God's mercy is greater than our weakness.
So grace is not an idea. Grace is God's own life shared with us. It's his forgiveness, his healing, his love poured into our hearts. It's the light of grace. In the light of grace, we see who we really are: Children of God made to love and to be loved. St. John Paul II often returned to this truth: the human person is made to love. Whatever our particular vocation, whether marriage, priesthood, consecrated life, or the single life, each one begins with this call to love.
Jesus Christ shows us what that love looks like. He is the perfect man, the fullness of humanity. Through his incarnation, his life, his death, and his resurrection, Jesus reveals that love means self-gift. He shows us that love is the total giving of oneself for the good of the other.
When we look at the cross, and we have them in many places, in many rooms, we wear the cross. But when we look at the cross, we see what love truly is: Sacrificial, faithful, life-giving. Love unites while sin divides. Love restores what sin has broken. And it's through this love that we discover who we really are. So if we want to become holy, we must learn how to give ourselves away, to let go of ego and self-interest, and live for God and others.
That call to self-giving love is very beautifully lived out in marriage and family life. When a man and woman enter into the sacrament of matrimony, they give themselves entirely to one another. Their vows express this total gift: "in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, for better or worse." Parenthood becomes a natural extension of that love. To bring children into the world and to raise them in the faith requires tremendous generosity, patience, and sacrifice. It costs something to love children into existence, and it costs something to raise them well, to teach them to pray, to instill virtue in them, and to guide them toward God.
Families become what the church calls the domestic church, the first and most important place where holiness is learned and lived. When love governs the home, it becomes a place of peace and joy. But when selfishness takes root, that is when pride or resentment enters, the harmony of family life begins to fracture. That's why forgiveness and humility are so essential in marriage and family life. Love must be renewed daily through prayer, through patience, and through the decision to serve one another. When parents live this way, their children see the gospel come alive before their eyes.
Love always costs something. It's not sentimental. It's demanding. It asks us to give of ourselves even when it's inconvenient, even when it hurts. But that is precisely what makes it redemptive. If you are a spouse, a parent, a priest, a friend, or simply someone striving to live your faith each day, remember that each act of self-giving, no matter how small, contributes to holiness. Holiness is not about doing great things. Holiness is about doing ordinary things with great love. As St. Therése of Lisieux would say, it's about rising each day and saying, "Lord, help me to love today as you love." And that is something we can all do.
So what does all this mean for us right now? Well, it means that the call to holiness is not an abstraction. It's not something for the past or the saints in stained glass windows in our churches. It's about you and me right where we are. Every vocation, whether priesthood, marriage, consecrated life, or single life, flows from the same source: God's invitation to love and to give.
If you are a young man listening and wondering whether God might be calling you to the priesthood, take that stirring seriously. Pray about it. Talk to someone you trust. Reach out to Father Brad Morin or Father Erin Donlon. They will listen, guide, and walk with you.
And for all of us, let us keep our seminarians close in prayer. Their yes to God will one day bear fruit in the church here in Maine. At the same time, let each of us renew our own "yes" to God, the yes we made at our baptism, the yes that leads us toward holiness.
Let's return again now to the question from the psalmist: "What is man that you are mindful of him?" The answer is really astonishing. We are created in God's image, redeemed by his Son, and called to be saints. To be holy is to be fully human, to live in love. It's to make a sincere gift of self as Jesus did. Whether in marriage, priesthood, or daily life, that is our vocation: To love God and to love one another. And please don't forget to love yourself.
So today as you go about your day, remember this: holiness is not out of reach. It begins wherever you are with a heart open to grace. And as we pray for our seminarians, for all those discerning God's call and for each other, may we never forget that through Christ, all things are possible. Thank you for listening. May God bless you. And I'd like to conclude by just asking once again for the intercession and the prayers of Mary our mother as we pray.
Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
