Text of the week

This weekend marks exactly a year since I became a priest.

The following weekend my parents will celebrate 32 years as husband and wife, and my best friend’s first child will turn three.

Vocation, I’ve been learning, is not a ‘once and for all’ decision.

Every morning, Jesus asks me to be his priest and, every morning, I have to say ‘yes’ to everything that the day has in store.

Likewise, every day, a husband is called to say ‘I do’ to his bride, promising once more to love her generously and faithfully.

Every day, a mother and father must open their hearts in renewed welcome to the child whom God has entrusted to their care.

A wise old priest, himself 58 years ordained, once told me that the best way to celebrate anniversaries of this sort is with a good examination of conscience: gratefully rejoicing for the good things God has done in you and through you and sincerely asking forgiveness for the little (and not so little) failures and infidelities of human weakness.

Finally, and most importantly, anniversaries are opportunities to look to the future with a renewed commitment and a confident hope rooted in the God who will never fail to guide us with his wisdom, strengthen us with his grace and accompany us with his presence, until all things are brought to their perfection in Christ Jesus.

Fr Jamie McMorrin,

St Francis Xavier, Falkirk