Meditation for May 28, Courageous Service

The young girl whose devotion to the present moment we were just admiring once addressed this prayer to God: "Lord, grant that I may answer You as did James and John, when You ask me if I can drink Your chalice and be baptized with Your baptism: 'Yes, I can.'"

She wrote: "In spite of all my complaints and demands which You have tolerated, I will always say in my heart: 'My Father, Thy will be done.'

"I will let myself be bound and led where I do not want to go; or, in other words, relinquish my caprice and pleasure.

"I will put my whole will into having no other will but God's.

"I will choose, if given a preference, not what would be tem­porarily most agreeable but rather what costs, just because it costs.

"What more am I doing than a pagan - I who am a Christian? What am I doing beyond the obligatory?

"I will put an end to these half measures and vague resolutions, these holy desires which for want of courage and love die before they are realized...."

She concluded: "Like Jeanne d'Arc I shall march, though my legs be worn off to the knees."

These words are courageous, indeed.

Can I as a religious aspire to less?

"O Jesus, despite the imperfections in my desires to follow You, or rather, because my desire is pure even though the results are so faulty I offer all to You.

"Because of the vastness of my desires, pardon the little that I give You and help me to give You more."

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Adapted from Meditations for Religious
by Father Raoul Plus, S.J. (© 1939, Frederick Pustet Co.)