"I Come to do Thy Will, O Lord"

Every authentic vocation to Consecrated Life begins with a sense of want. The soul invited by Christ yearns for something so much more than it has experienced or can experience of this world and its goods. It longs for a more intimate knowledge of the Person of Jesus Christ, a knowledge that grows and blossoms into a rich and abiding love, a Love for whose sake all else is relinquished. As He becomes the soul's "pearl of great price", a deep desire and determination to enter into a close union with Him wells up in the soul. Its choices and actions begin to reflect the focusing of its desires on Him. More time is set aside for gentle conversation with Him. Charitable actions spring up more readily. An attentive attitude develops, listening to hear His voice in the mundane occurrences of daily living. Quietly but steadily, he calls His spouse to live for and in the world while teaching her to set aside the world and the things of it. Following His prompting, she seeks that place, that community, where she will be able to hear His voice most clearly and respond most freely. Each baptized Christian has the vocation "to do the will of the Father" as Christ most perfectly did, but His spouse in a special way dedicates herself to fulfilling promptly and joyfully all that her Beloved suggests. The disposition of her heart is ever His own, "I come to do Thy will, O God". Setting aside her personal desires and feelings, she lives for Him alone, praying daily for the light to know His will and the grace to do it with alacrity at each moment. It is in doing His will that she becomes fully free: free from the slavery of her own desires, inclinations, and weaknesses, free to be the woman that He created her to be - gentle, tender, patient, courageous, and loving - a woman like His own Mother.

​O Mary, Mother and Model of Religious,
Intercede for us as we strive to do His will in all things!