At the Last Supper Jesus said to his Apostles, "It was not you who chose me, it was I who chose you to go forth and bear fruit. Your fruit must endure, so that all you ask the Father in my name he will give you" (John 15.16)

The saints were called to do God's works, but what about you? Why did God create you? What mission does He have for you such that He chose to create you?

We spend so much time figuring out what we will do for college and career and yet how much time do we spend trying to figure out what Jesus meant by this passage and what His mission for us might be? How much time have you invested in discovering God's plan for your life?

Does the Lord want you to be married? Single? Priest? Sister? I find many who will ask, "I wonder what I want to do with my life?" and I find another smaller group of young and other aged people who are asking a very different and more challenging question: "I wonder what God wants me to do with my life?" The question you choose to ask will have a direct impact on the direction your life will take and those whom God wants to entrust to your care.

What would happen if a group of young people were to make this prayer: "Lord, if you have something special which needs to be done--even if it is difficult, especially if it is difficult-I pray for the grace to say, yes-Give me the grace to do something challenging for You with my life." Jesus changed the world with a small group of men. All the saints made this kind of surrender. What about you? St. Paul said it with his words and with his life: "None of us lives as his own master and none of us dies as his own master. While we live we are responsible to the Lord, and when we die we die as his servants. Both in life and in death we are the Lord's"(Romans 14.7-9).

The Lord tends not to answer with claps of thunder or visions but through the still whisper heard in prayer and waiting. When I was a college student Fr. Burke (now Bishop Burke) told me to spend time in the Blessed Sacrament chapel. He said, "You will find your vocation through prayer before the Blessed Sacrament." This prayer has changed my life and truly has led me to the priesthood.

I invite and challenge you to make this prayer of surrender. If we could only learn to make this personal surrender to Jesus Christ there would not be a shortage of holy priests, deacons, religious, as well as holy married persons.

I also invite you to give me a call or an email so that we can talk further about God's call for you and how to grow in your discernment of His call.

May the Lord Jesus truly be the Lord of all that we do and are. Asking God's blessing for you and the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe, I am

Reverend Joseph Hirsch

Director of the Office of Vocations

3710 East Avenue South, P.O. Box 4004

La Crosse, WI 54606-4004

(608) 791-2666

FAX: (608) 788-8413

Email: jhirsch@dioceseoflacrosse.com