And I, a Catholic high school grad with a $0 salary, am here to bring down the average. (link to the study)
Anonymous asked:
Wow! Father, you vocation story is incredibly inspiring. But I'm feeling that same pressure you did to choose the "best" college and the "most successful" major. What advice would you offer to a high school senior on the precipice of this huge decision about where to go to college? Or rather, what would you have liked someone to tell you during that time in your life?
I definitely needed a better sense of the "what for."
In other words, get into the best college... for what? Get the best job... for what? Get rich... for what?
Will the best college make you the best person you can be? Often it won't. Will the best major guarantee your success in life? Often it won't. Will wealth make you truly full happy? Never.
But I wasn't thinking like that, as you can tell from the story. It took that year off to start putting things in perspective. And I never really got around to asking the right question -- it took a sudden Godbolt out of the blue to make it happen... "What does God want your life to be for?"
Anyway, if you're asking yourself that question at this time in your life -- and I hope you are -- then you're in better shape than I was. Take it easy, be patient, let God reveal his plan little by little... get advice or (even better) spiritual direction, spend time with Jesus in adoration or with the sacraments, seek to stretch your heart with acts of generosity and service...
And be normal and have lots of fun, too, otherwise you'll go nuts. :-)
I don't know; was that what you were looking for? God bless you!
- Father Shane
P.S. Don't believe the people who say "Follow your dream and your life will be wonderful." Follow God's dream for you, and he will totally redefine "wonderful" for you.
Anonymous asked:
Dear Father, as a Catholic in a secular high school, how should I spread the Gospel? Or if it's not my proper time to do such things, then what is it that I am supposed to do? I mean, prayer is one thing, but living out the faith is another, and I'm not sure how I should go about it.
You might really get a lot out of reading and reflecting on this: the Pope's WYD message for 2008. (Or, if you've got lots of free time, Christifideles Laici.) The Holy Spirit wants to use you as a missionary! The question of course is "how"?
Our faith is missionary by nature. If we have received such an incredibly great gift, we can't keep it to ourselves, naturally. Christianity isn't selfish, and anything that would turn us in on ourselves to contemplate our own holiness and perfection at the expense of spreading the Good News... isn't truly holy, perfect, or even Christian.
Prayer is definitely the first step! Pray for those around you, pray for God's light to help them find what you've found, pray for your own needs too.
Your Christian witness can be relatively silent, though, and sometimes that's most prudent. A great big blaring "I love Jesus" t-shirt may end up turning off more people than it attracts. A very quiet "I love Jesus" in everything you do, the way you treat people, the things you say no to, the things you say yes to... now that's a real "I love Jesus" that can turn heads and change hearts!
Spreading the faith doesn't mean "being in people's faces" like some have thought. But it's not about "not being noticed," either. Striking the right balance in the milieu you're in -- in order to make your Christian lifestyle and your Christian hope truly attractive to the people you deal with -- isn't easy. But the Spirit (and maybe someone wise you may know) can inspire the specific ways. Maybe it's wearing a discreet purity ring that makes people ask what you're wearing and can be a way to strike up a good conversation. Maybe it's writing "Peter" on your backpack instead of "Joe" or "Lucy" instead of "Angela" so that people ask why you didn't use your name and you can tell them it's your Confirmation name. Maybe it's eating fish every Friday at lunch so that people ask why after a while.
But above all and in everything, John 13:35... "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
God bless you!
- Father Shane
fathershane reblogged
Most Catholic High Schools have a chapel for their services, but because of mine was next to St. James Cathedral. This was my chapel ^
Church envy, anyone?