Daily Thought For September 28, 2014

An Illusion 

A whole stream of public opinion tells the Church to moderate its requirement of sacrifice and renunciation, to lower its expectations of priests, religious, and lay people. Some people believe that a more lenient attitude, a less demanding way of life, would attract more vocations and believers to the Church. But experience has shown that this is an illusion. 

Young people want to give themselves completely, and to become authentic disciples of Christ. They want an unequivocally evangelical life and detest partial commitments and "accommodating virtue." They are not afraid of self-denial; their only fear is to undervalue the evangelical call, to live a mediocre Christian life or a stunted priestly or religious life. 

Lord, 

we, the youth of the whole world
turn our eyes toward you, our ideal.
Draw us to yourself 

We offer boundless thanks to you
for what you demand of us. 

Thank you for giving us the freedom to choose
and for respecting our human dignity 

despite our weakness. 

You have saved me, Lord, 

and you made me a child of God.
You are not like materialism 

to which people may become slave
in their hunger for consumption, 

and by following the path of false pleasures.
I will follow you alone, Lord. 

I accept being a child of God 

and embrace all the demands that name entails. 

I am convinced. I must follow the narrow way
the only way that leads to everlasting life. 

from Prayers of Hope—Words of Courage by Cardinal Francis Xavier Nguyễn Văn Thuận pp. 3-4