Regnum Christi

Main Menu
Menu
Menu
Search

February 18, 2024

3 Steps to Discerning your Mission in Life

/ Blog, Regnum Christi News

Whether they know it or not, everyone around us is discerning the will of God in their lives.  Some may confuse it with seeking pleasure and accomplishment, but they are really looking for fulfillment – to accomplish what they were created for.

 

 

Even if we have already found our primary vocation and state in life, we continue to seek the way we are called to live God’s will on a daily basis.  We are constantly asking Christ to show us how he calls us to serve him and others as a gift of self — our mission.

 

 

How do we find our mission and live it? Here are 3 simple signs that point to the God-given mission Our Lord has for you.

 

 

Step 1 “What is the greatest path of love for you?”

 

 

 “At last I have found my vocation. In the heart of the Church, I will be Love!” -St Thérèse de Liseux

 

St. Thérèse de Liseux’s discovery of her vocation and mission proclaims the vocation and mission of all of us. We are all called to be apostles, and finding your mission as an apostle is synonymous with finding the way that Jesus calls you to love.

 

 

“For you were called for freedom, brothers. But do not use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh; rather, serve one another through love.” -Galatians 5:13

 

Love is not about following your desires or warm and fuzzy feelings.  To love is to the will the good of the other.  So discovering your mission is not so much seeking answers in what makes you feel good and fulfilled. You find it in asking what way you can best concretely give of yourself for the most good of others? That is your call to love. That is your God-given mission.  Bishop Robert Barron explains your mission as the answer to the question, “What is the greatest path of love for you?”

 

 

Step 2: What makes the fruits of the Spirit flourish in you?

 

Maybe step one narrows it down a bit for you, but still leaves you with a list of possibilities.  Look at what your skills and gifts are.  Then take a look at what you do to love others – your actions that will (and do) the most for their good — that brings out the fruits of the Holy Spirit in you.

 

 

“…the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” -Galatians 5: 22-23

 

Among these, pay particular attention to the gifts of joy and peace.  What gives you a deep joy and an abiding sense of peace?  This is different from superficial fun, happiness, accomplishment, or pride.  A “deep joy” shares deep joy with others through your mission.

 

 

“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep joy and the world’s deep hunger meet” – Frederick Buechner

 

Step 3: Live a perpetual discernment

 

This set of guidelines applies not only to discerning your vocation and apostolic work but also to seeking and living the will of God day-by-day, minute-by-minute.

 

 

What is my greatest path of love this morning?  In this meeting? In this task? In this relationship? In this conversation? Learn to live in a constant state of discerning the mission of love before you, and you’ll find you are allowing God to love through you and bring you along on the adventure he has wanted to share with you from the moment he created you.

 

 

If you are a young woman who is interested in discernment, click the button below!

More Information

3 Steps to Discerning your Mission in Life Read More »

February 18, 2024 – Temptation’s Hour

/ Daily Meditations

 

 

 

 

 

First Sunday of Lent

 

Mark 1:12-15

 

The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert, and he remained in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan. He was among wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him. After John had been arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the Gospel of God: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the Gospel.”

 

Introductory Prayer: Lord Jesus, I believe that you are leading me and that when I go astray it’s because I take my eyes off you and cease to follow you. I know that you will never abandon me. Thank you for your unconditional and restoring love. I place all my trust in you, and I long to love you in return with all my mind, heart, soul, and strength.

 

Petition: Lord Jesus, help me to be steadfast in moments of temptation.

 

  1. The Role of Temptation: Jesus’ public life begins by a duel with Satan. Before working any miracles, before speaking any parables, before gathering any disciples, the Lord makes clear what his life and mission are to be about: they are to destroy the works of the devil and establish the kingdom of grace. To do this, Jesus confronts Satan’s greatest weapon against the human person: temptation. Satan seduces the human spirit into a life of sin, which involves focusing on oneself. Jesus meets the devil on his own terrain and—in the face of mysterious temptation—remains focused on the Father and his will. Temptation plays an important role in the plan of redemption. It helps us define ourselves: directing our lives either toward God by embracing grace or toward sin by turning in on oneself.

 

  1. Wild Beasts and Angels: We bear within ourselves the potential to become either saints or sinners. No one’s fate is predetermined. Even the angels had to make a free choice of good or evil and, by this choice, forge their personal destinies. The love and dedication of the angels that chose the good made them faithful instruments of God’s will and plan. The vicious self-centeredness of the demons made them into ravenous beasts endlessly looking for someone to devour. Our person and our most intimate, most secret choices are part of this ongoing and cosmic struggle between good and evil. The hour of temptation is the hour of both choice and decision. The stronger the temptation, the stronger the decision must be. A repeated choice for a good decision makes a habit of good. Many good habits build a good character. A good character, open to God’s grace, is holiness.

 

  1. We Need to Take a Position Here and Now: Christ’s appearance in Galilee was marked by a call to decision. No one remains indifferent before Jesus Christ; no one hears his message without some sort of subsequent decision. Jesus calls all men and women to his Kingdom, and this call constantly brings people to choose either to draw ever closer to him, or to pull further away. The best time to choose is always now, and the best place is always here. If not now, when? If not here, then where?

 

Conversation with Christ: Lord Jesus, I want always to choose you, but I know that I am weak. Please give me strength in my hour of temptation. Please keep me steady and inflame my heart with love so that I choose you and your ways even though it is costly. May the temptations I overcome become the stepping-stones to a holy life.

 

Resolution: I will be attentive today to the subtle ways in which I am tempted to center my life around myself. When these temptations come, I firmly commit to following Christ instead of my own selfish path.

February 18, 2024 – Temptation’s Hour Read More »

Scroll to Top
Menu
Menu
Menu
Menu

Alex Kucera

Atlanta

Alex Kucera has lived in Atlanta, GA, for the last 46 years. He is one of 9 children, married to his wife Karmen, and has 3 girls, one grandson, and a granddaughter on the way. Alex joined Regnum Christi in 2007. Out of the gate, he joined the Helping Hands Medical Missions apostolate and is still participating today with the Ghana Friendship Mission.

In 2009, Alex was asked to be the Atlanta RC Renewal Coordinator for the Atlanta Locality to help the RC members with the RC renewal process. Alex became a Group Leader in 2012 for four of the Atlanta Men’s Section Teams and continues today. Running in parallel, in 2013, Alex became a Team Leader and shepherded a large team of good men.

Alex was honored to be the Atlanta Mission Coordinator between 2010 to 2022 (12 years), coordinating 5-8 Holy Week Mission teams across Georgia. He also created and coordinated missions at a parish in Athens, GA, for 9 years. Alex continues to coordinate Holy Week Missions, Advent Missions, and Monthly missions at Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Cumming, GA.

From 2016 to 2022, Alex also served as the Men’s Section Assistant in Atlanta. He loved working with the Men’s Section Director, the Legionaries, Consecrated, and Women’s Section leadership teams.

Alex is exceptionally grateful to the Legionaries, Consecrated, and many RC members who he’s journeyed shoulder to shoulder, growing his relationship with Christ and others along the way. He knows that there is only one way, that’s Christ’s Way, with others!