"Jesus, I Trust In You!"

Trust God with your life, and reverence His judgments.  God loves you! He knows what is best for you, both now and in the future.  He also knows what is best for countless others who are meant to be touched, forever and in a very special way, by Him through your personal apostolate.

He desires, and knows, what is best for us all.

The woman sat at a small round table at one end of the pizzaria;  her two teenage sons were seated across from her.  With her back against the wall, she was in the position to see all the goings on in the dining area.  The woman's preteen aged daughter sat at a larger round table nearby, along with three of her  friends.  Her brothers sometimes walked across the street after school to meet with the guys for pizza and fellowship.  Today it was the middle school girls' turn to get together.  

Toward the middle of the restaurant, on the right, a large group of high school boys sat at a very long table.  They appeared to be the same age as her oldest son.  Sometimes the woman glanced beyond her oldest son at the young men.  They were content and very well behaved.  Most of them she had never seen before, although she did know one boy who had gone to the same Catholic elementary and middle school as her oldest son.

The girls chatted merrily at their table while enjoying their social encounter and their meal. As the conversation continued at the woman's table, her oldest son, who had finished eating by then, had picked up the wrapper from his straw and manipulated it between his fingers.  

While taking in the happy scene, the woman wondered what the future would be like for all the young men, what they would become, how much promise their lives had, how much they were loved and valued by God, and how much of His love they had to enjoy and to share. 

It was a beautiful moment. 

More than thirty years prior, when the woman was a teenager, she formally asked the good Lord if He wanted her to become a nun.  His response was very clear.  He said, "No."

Through the years she experienced a persistent, nagging doubt that God's refusal was an indication that she had been rejected by Him.  How could Jesus refuse a loving request to become His bride?  


What she didn't understand well at the time is that God creates every one of us with a purpose, and with the talents and skills we are to develop throughout life as we serve humanity as His instruments of love. While the young lady was correct in asking God what it was He wanted her to accomplish, for He had the answer, her vision was short-sighted because she did not consider what God wanted to accomplish through her life down the road.  

The young lady married within ten years and by the age of 34, had been blessed with with three beautiful children.  

Fourteen years after the woman was married, she was legally divorced and had been granted an annulment.  Sometimes she was tempted to say to God, "You knew from all eternity that my marriage would end, and yet You denied me the opportunity to be Jesus' spouse.  That union would have lasted forever." 

Roughly ten years later, the good Lord had something very special to tell her.  


One morning while she was on her way to Holy Mass, He said that a priest would come from their family.  Jesus had not rejected her all those years ago. Rather, God had a different wonderful purpose for her life.  She was meant to be a mother so God could create a future priest.

After the woman received this joyful revelation, the devil shared with her his great displeasure.  He suggested oppressive doubts, saying, "You should have become a nun!  That's what you were supposed to do.  You should have been a bride of Christ instead!  That's what you were meant to do.  You should have become a nun!  You should have become a nun.  That's what you were supposed to do, not be a mother..."  


At first she wondered where those thoughts were coming from, because by then she more fully understood God's plan for her life.  She loved being a mother and it was what she did best, because God had given her the skills, graces, and unfathomable love to accomplish her mission to its fullest expression.  She kept in close contact with God through prayer, received Jesus in Holy Communion every day she was physically able to, and received the Sacrament of Reconciliation often.  She said the Rosary as often as she was able, and recognized the constant presence of God in everyone's life.  She aspired to greater sanctity and closer union with God. 


Although she would have made a wonderful nun, she made an even better mother, for that is the mission God had chosen for her from all of eternity.    

The persistent, nagging thoughts that she had made the wrong decision, that God was displeased with her decision, that she never should have married, and that since she was neither married to Jesus nor to a man, she was nothing, she was unlovable, without value, and not even worth loving, came from the devil.  His efforts to sabotage her efforts to be obedient, humble, and holy were relentless and brutal.  Once it became known that a priest would come from her family, the devil became even angrier.  

All the woman's efforts were certainly not lost on her children.  Her unconditional "Fiat" to God was teaching them to conform their wills to God's will, too. 


So there at the restaurant all those years later, the woman returned her gaze from the large group of boys to her oldest son.  What a fine young man, so Christ-like, so genuine, so caring, so other worldly, she thought.  Was he the one God had created for that special purpose?  

The boys had no knowledge of what their mother had been thinking. 

Just when the woman concluded that thought, her oldest son took the white paper straw wrapper he had been manipulating in his hands and slid it across the table toward her.

He had formed it into the shape of a cross.

Later, the woman said a special prayer to God. After so many years she had been given the final piece to a remarkably wonderful puzzle, in response to having recited the prayer "Jesus, I trust in You!" countless times along the way.

"Almighty God, I joyfully accept Your having created me not to be a nun, for it is through the Holy Apostolate of Motherhood that You will send the world a holy priest." 
 

Trust God with your life, and want what God wants.  Reverence His judgments, for God loves you! He knows what is best for you, both now and in the future.  He also knows what is best for countless others who are meant to be touched, forever and in a very special way, by Him through your personal apostolate.

Work hard at growing in sanctity, so that God's love can reach its fullest expression in you and through you.

Thank you! 

"I tell you that you have less to suffer in following the cross than in serving the world and its pleasures."~ St. John Vianney


In honor of every apostolate, and the immeasurable value of unifying our wills to God's most perfect will in imitation of Jesus and Mary, enjoy the following beautiful video:

God is at work in you!