Life Ahead

"Human life acquires fullness when it becomes a self-gift: a gift which can express itself in matrimony, in consecrated virginity, in self-dedication to one's neighbour towards an ideal, or in the choice of priestly ministry. Parents will truly serve the life of their children if they help them make their own lives a gift, respecting their mature choices and fostering joyfully each vocation, including the religious and priestly one" (John Paul II). I find so much truth in this one line. I have read significant parts of the Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality, and nowhere else have I found so much truth on this issue. You know when you have found something that is right, everything about it clicks...your head nods, but not in a bored stupor too often found in class lectures, but in agreement with every word proclaimed. And oh the power of rhetoric, to be enabled to speak in such a way to carry a country to make war on itself, as in Rwanda, or to lead itself to peace as in the effort so heroicly led by Gandhi. We need more people in the world who will step outside the daily routine and really listen to what goes on in the home, on the street, in the country and throughout the world. Life is so much more than the diario or "daily grind", yet how many of us never see that and lead our lives of "quiet desperation". Seize the truth as we seize the day. How? That is different for every one of us. But according to the truth above, we must truly make our lives a gift in whatever way we are most capable. Yes parents play a huge role in this, but it is up to us to take what we have learned and otherwise been given and find the way that we will give back. It matters not as to your upbringing, though this may limit you in some way, this does not change your ability to make a difference if only by way of small gifts given to those nearest you. From there, pray, develop your relationship with the Lord and he will lead you on. This is what I believe.