Today’s Scriptures tell the story of a depressed, angry Jonah. The assignment he was given did not turn out the way he thought it should. I could easily identify with that part of the story, even Jonah’s pouting under the shade tree and furious that it dies, leaving him exposed to the torching heat of the day. Like Jonah who did not want to go to Nineveh and didn’t believe he had anything more to contribute to God’s plan, I, too, was ready to throw in the towel on vocation ministry this morning for various reasons. But obviously did not act on those feelings except to sputter in prayer this morning. “Where are the vocations, Lord? Why did you cut down “the shade trees” that provided so much relief when religious congregations could boast of 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 100 postulants and twice as many novices? That anger turned constructive for me—thanks to grace—as I prayed as Jesus teaches us in today’s Gospel: “Hallowed be your name. Your Kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as in heaven.” Fueled by the strength of the Eucharist, I went about the urgent work of the day and made plans for what I might do to restart this “sputtering engine” that is responsible, with the other sisters of my province, to jump start new vocations for the U.S./Caribbean province of the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother.
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