Promptings to Act with LoveRead Time 9 min

We begin this new school year by consecrating it to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. We consecrate our study, our work, our extra curriculars to Jesus and Mary. We put ourselves at the service of God, so that his wonderful and excellent plan may be fulfilled by the aid of our thoughts and words and actions.

A Change of Perspective

Many see the new school year with anxiety, and others see it with joyful expectation, but let us not miss the opportunity hidden with the joys and sorrows. We have the opportunity to give this school year to God as a gift, as an offering, as a sacrifice pleasing in his eyes. I think some would simply pay lip service to this idea of offering the year to God, but it is possible, and it is the best way to approach the coming year.

We have all been given a diversity of gifts and talents. Certainly, we would all hope to put these gifts in the service of others for the love of God, but often pride creeps in to steal the good that could come from those gifts. We could help others with their homework because we have been gifted with a keen understanding, but we reason that if we help others, we will waste our time. We could protect the outcasts of our school because God has made us big and strong, but then we would lose some of our popularity. We could stand up for life with the gift of speech or art or music that God has given us, but we don’t want to rock the boat.

Our talents were given to us to steward, the same with our health and wealth and opportunities. At some point, we must realize that what we were given by our creator rightly should be returned to him — that is, offered to him — because it is the proper and right order of our gifts. When we offer ourselves and all that we are and have to God, it does not mean that somehow he will take those things from us; what it means is that he will direct their use through us. So, we will get to keep them, but now we are no longer selfishly attached to them, we are no longer puffed up with arrogant pride over them, we are no longer trying to use them to destroy our competition. We will learn to listen to his promptings; first, the things we know he wants from us because we read them in the Holy Scriptures and learned them from the teachings of the Holy Catholic Church. Then we learn to pray and be still and listen to his promptings in our hearts — to sit with the lonely kid, to direct a newbie to their classroom, to support a good cause, to speak words of affirmation instead of words of condemnation.

When we consecrate our year to God, we change our perspective. We stop being focused solely on me, myself and I, and start to focus on how our gifts, our time and our attention could help someone else. How can we be a blessing to those around us? We start to see that we are capable, with the help of God, to make a difference in this world. We can make a difference in our workplace, in our school, in our classroom, in our family, by paying attention to how we could obey the commandments we already know, and learn to be still and listen to the promptings of God.

Promptings to Act

In order to hear the promptings of God, we must first choose him and his wonderful plan. God has revealed to us a plan to save us. He did it through the holy writings of the prophets and biblical authors, and he did it supremely through Jesus Christ, his son, sent to save us and teach us and redeem us. Jesus showed us that we must be Baptized, he showed us that we must repent and be cleansed of our sin, and he showed us that his Body and Blood are true food and true drink. He showed us we must nourish ourselves with him. Having done these things, being in a state of grace and praying daily for his help, consecrating our day and week and month and year to him, then he can start to teach us the subtle way of love — love of God and love of neighbor.

This is a way of being very different from how our modern society behaves. We will be taught the way of humble service for the love of God. This is what St. Therese of Lisieux calls the “Little Way.” It is a beautiful and fulfilling way to live, not because you will be recognized and applauded by the society, but because you will be acting in and with the grace of God. No one would say that St. Therese was great in her time; she did not win any awards or accomplish great deeds, and yet her greatness was inside of her because that is where God was teaching her the little way. St. Therese taught us that all things, even the smallest, have an incalculable value if done humbly for the love of God. Her little way is a way of self-surrender, of consecrating everything to God. Let us listen to our little sister and teacher St. Therese as we begin this new year:

You know well enough that our Lord does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, nor even at their difficulty,

but at the love with which we do them.

Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice,

here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word;

always doing the smallest right thing and doing it all for love.

St. Therese of Lisieux