Jesus Calls you in the Joy of His Service

On Religious Vocation by Pope John Paul II (Redemptionis Donum)

Vocation carries with it the answer to the question: Why be a human person—and how? This answer adds a new dimension to the whole of life and establishes its definitive meaning. This meaning emerges against the background of the Gospel paradox of losing one's life in order to save it, and on the other hand saving one's life by losing it "for Christ's sake and for the sake of the Gospel."

In the light of these words, Christ's call becomes perfectly clear: "Go, sell what you possess, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." (Mt. 19:21) Between this "go" and the subsequent "come, follow me" there is a close connection. It can be said that these latter words determine the very essence of vocation. For a vocation is a matter of following the footsteps of Christ (sequi—to follow, hence sequela Christi). The terms "go...sell...give" seem to lay down the precondition of a vocation. Nevertheless, this condition is not "external" to a vocation but is already inside it. For a person discovers the new sense of his or her humanity not only in order "to follow" Christ but to the extent that he or she actually does follow Him. When a person "sells what he possesses" and "gives it to the poor," he discovers that those possessions and the comforts he enjoyed were not the treasure to hold on to. The treasure is in his heart, which Christ makes capable of "giving" to others by the giving of self. The rich person is not the one who possesses but the one who "gives," the one who is capable of giving.

Are you looking for a life of full dedication to the service of God and of the Immaculate Virgin Mary, a life of prayer and of love? God has chosen the Immaculate Coredemptrix as the Woman who will crush the head of Satan.

To carry out God's plan of salvation, our Heavenly Mother and Immaculate Queen is in need of generous souls willing to become docile instruments in Her Immaculate Hands. If you are chosen to answer Mary's call and thus cooperate fully in the conquest of all souls for God, write to the FRANCISCAN SISTERS OF THE IMMACULATE, come and visit, or make a personal retreat. Come and discern whether our life of total consecration of the Immaculate Virgin according to the program of perfect consecration proposed by St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe is the life our Blessed Mother has chosen for you.