1. My Vocation in the world: gazing at the vision

STAGE 1: Facing Reality

Stage One

FACING REALITY

“Those who desire to take up this special devotion should spend at least a week in emptying themselves of the spirit of the world, which is opposed to the spirit of Jesus” (TD 227)

MY VOCATION IN THE WORLD

GAZING AT THE VISION

Introductory Prayer: Come, Holy Spirit (Just click or tap)

CALL

Aim: To hear and understand the call inviting us into God’s plan and spiritual blessings.

Reading:

God’s plan (Eph 1:3-10): Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love.

He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us.

With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

Comment

Paul speaks of a “divine plan” which will ultimately gather up everything in Christ through the lives of individual Christians. In fact, this plan, unfolding from the beginning of time, is concerned not with kings or even with apostles only, but with all Christians, with everyone who has heard the gospel and believed in Jesus – which means us as much as those for whom Paul was first writing.

God has a plan, has had a plan in fact from Day One, and the object of that plan includes your baptism and mine, our life of faith. That you and I are that important to God is worth spending a few moments thinking about.

What is the plan? Paul tells us four things about it:

First, we are redeemed through Jesus’ blood, that is, through the saving work that he completed and his Father certified and acknowledged by raising him from the dead.

Second, we are forgiven through the richness of the grace lavished on us.

Third, all this is our inheritance, a lasting bequest that will carry us through in this world and beyond.

And fourth, part of the plan is that we should know about it – we are not puppets going through someone else’s motions to their design. Rather, because God loves us so much, he is sharing the knowledge of some of his plan with us, so that we may by grace be co-workers with him in bringing everything to completion, as Paul says, in the fullness of time.

Personal Reflection and Sharing

What place do I give God in my life-plans?

How do I consider myself a co-worker with God in bringing about betterment in today’s world?

[1-1] CALL RESPONSE COMMITMENT PRAYER