Samuel grew up, and the LORD was with him, not permitting any word of his to be without effect. // 1 Samuel 3:19
Several years ago, I ran full force into being a spiritual director for a retreat for college students at a Newman Center in Texas. Life was so full that I regretted adding this week-long retreat to my schedule but I offered my exhaustion to the Lord.
I will never forget my first directee bounding into the little choir room where I was meeting people. She was a junior and had an exuberant personality. We prayed, and she promptly started sharing. I caught my breath as she shared. I could feel the Lord so vividly present to her and sensed her desire to know and love Him. All of my exhaustion dissipated like clouds that the wind had deftly whisked away. I was awakened. I was like the priest Eli in the First Reading (see 1 Samuel 3:1-10, 19-20). He sounds tired and grumpy. You can almost hear him saying, “I’m tired. Stop waking me up, you youngster.” But the Lord blesses precisely this kind of youthful love of God. He yearns for it. He yearns for hearts that seek Him and have the audacity to respond, to ask questions, to ask for big things, and to say, “Here I am.” That’s why God blessed Samuel so much that his every word was blessed.
I felt this desire for the young woman before me during that retreat and for other students I have met over the years. I want them to be so blessed. I desire that the abundance of God’s gifts overflows in them, so much so that their every word gives fruitful glory to God.
That’s probably a tiny sliver of what you mothers must feel when you think of your children and grandchildren. May it be so. May all of our children and spiritual children be so blessed as to flourish and to become Saints. And that is what I want for you, dear sister: to have a renewed passionate, youthful love of the Lord and a greater willingness to jump up and serve Him. May all of our words spoken in His service be blessed! Amen!
Maria Kim-Ngân Bùi, after twenty years in religious life, is discerning a call to found a community of consecrated religious women dedicated to Our Lady and who will pray reparation for sins against the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, pray for conversions, and work for the evangelization of those who have left the Church or feel furthest from the Church.
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