These last 5 years of seminary formation have gone by in a flash, and despite the natural human wrestling with the question of my vocational calling, what has remained constant is God’s grace, and the certainty that I have been called to live a life of holiness. There is a very solid tradition to daily consecrate oneself to the Lord. And that is something that I have done for years, offering up my ‘prayers, actions, and sacrifices’ of each day. It has truly brought me joy and consolation to do so.
This past year I came across a beautiful prayer reflection written by a Carmelite that has altered how I understand what daily consecration means, and how its intimately connected to the lifelong consecration of our lives through our vocations. As a transitional deacon and God willing a priest of Jesus Christ, I will consecrate myself entirely to Himself and to the service of His Church. Very much in the same vein that you have, or will be, consecrating yourself to Him through your vocation to the married life, the religious consecrated life, or to the priesthood. No matter where you are on your vocational journey, trust that God has a plan for your life; meant to draw you deeper and deeper in the intimate reality of Himself. May each of us might live out our call to holiness with faithful adherence to the joyful hope offered to us in Jesus Christ. Join me in offering up this prayer of consecration for all the men and women in our diocese:
“O infinite God, I wish to offer and consecrate myself unceasingly to You on the altar of my heart. First of all, I offer You my soul, Your spouse, ransomed with Your precious Blood. I offer it as a place of repose for Your Majesty, that it may be transformed in You, no longer living of itself, but only with Your life.
“O divine Wisdom, I offer You my intellect avid for knowledge, that You may quench its thirst enabling it to comprehend Your grandeurs! Enlighten my darkness, and let me taste You in that very sweet knowledge which inflames my heart with love.
“Next, O most beautiful Spouse of my soul, I offer you my will which seeks You above all else, to love You with an eternal ardor, and be united to You forever. Deign, O Lord, that my will may detach itself from all creatures and, soaring aloft, elevate itself to You; then, in the slumber of pure love, let it repose in the cavern of your Heart…I offer and give myself to You, since I know with certainty that my happiness consists in uniting myself to You.”
– Venerable John of Jesus Mary
By: Deacon David Roman