The Holy Forty Martyrs of Sebaste (321-23)
Great Fast Day 26. Abstention from meat and foods that contain meat. According to liturgical prescriptions, the Divine Liturgy is not celebrated today.
Read
Presanctified – Genesis 12:1-7; Proverbs 14:15-26
Hebrews 12:1-10; Matthew 20:1-16
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
I was recently speaking with a deacon who was sharing with me his vocation story. He mentioned that numerous times in his life, he felt God was calling him to ministry in the Church, but he, for various reasons, kept ignoring or pushing God’s call away. Eventually, he could no longer resist the call and decided to discern whether the diaconate was the vocational call coming from God.
Today’s reading from Genesis recounts Abram being called by God. It would have been easy for Abram to ignore God’s call especially since he was already 75 years old! But Abram does no such thing. Rather, he wholeheartedly accepts God’s call and does as the Lord asks.
Brothers and sisters, our Lord calls each and every one of us to follow Him. He calls us to various roles, responsibilities, or ministries within His Church. Often, we want to ignore this call because we judge ourselves ill-prepared or because we are afraid of taking on responsibility or due to our age. May we respond to our Lord like Abram, with full confidence that He will help us in our vocation, supplying us with whatever we may lack in fulfilling His call.