Today the church remembers St. Anthony of the Desert, the first monk. He discovered his vocation at mass one day. He happened to attend when the gospel of Matthew recalled Jesus speaking to the rich young man to sell all he had and give the proceeds to the poor and follow him.
Anthony did that. First he provided for his sister and her future, but the rest he disposed to the poor and retired to the desert. Anthony struggled--vocations are never free from that--and always entrusted himself to the Lord's care.
Anthony reminds us to keep alert to hear Jesus communicate to us in the scriptures we pick up and read as well as to those we hear proclaimed at mass or at any other liturgy. One passage can hold the key to the discovery of our "true selves," to use a favored phrase of a contemporary monk, Thomas Merton.
The Temptation of St. Anthony by RyanDianna under this license.
No comments:
Post a Comment