Dear Bertha,<\/p>\n
What a beautiful tradition!\u00a0 Taking your aspirant\u2019s uniform on today\u2019s Feast has a lot of significance.\u00a0 It shows that what you are \u201caspiring\u201d to as you enter a religious community is much different and much more than what your friends are aspiring to as they begin their new jobs.\u00a0 Let me explain.<\/p>\n
John the Baptist played a special role in the history of salvation.\u00a0 He was the last of the prophets, those mysterious and inspiring figures singled out by God to announce his plan and his will to the Chosen People.\u00a0 All the Gospel writers give ample space to John, to his words, and above all to his martyrdom.\u00a0 He was the Precursor; the one who prepared hearts and minds for the coming of Christ.\u00a0 His life wasn\u2019t about himself, but about the One who was to come after him.<\/p>\n
Your life as a consecrated soul will be exactly the same.\u00a0 God has shown a special predilection in calling you to dedicate your whole being exclusively to him and to his service.\u00a0 You have always been \u2013 in God\u2019s mind \u2013 an irreplaceable link in the long chain of salvation history; now, through your consecration, you are more like a furnace that will forge many more of those links through your prayer, poverty, chastity, and obedience.\u00a0 Like John, God will send you to prepare hearts and minds for the coming of Christ, of his grace, his voice, his call, his love.\u00a0 You are a matchmaker, bringing Christ into contact with his beloved souls, and bringing them into contact with him.\u00a0 And you will do that the same way John the Baptist did it: emptying yourself more and more of all selfishness, and filling yourself more and more with the light of Christ.<\/p>\n
Now, don\u2019t get me wrong, it won\u2019t be easy.\u00a0 You will have your own martyrdoms, if you want to be faithful to what Christ asks of you \u2013 just as John did.\u00a0 But God will always give you the strength you need to live them with love, and fortitude, and elegance.\u00a0 You have only to remember always the reason you are where you are: God has called you; in the midst of the frenetic world enslaved by sin and angst, he has set you up as a shining witness to his Kingdom of peace and meaning.<\/p>\n
Thus the great wisdom of having you receive your aspirant\u2019s uniform on today\u2019s Feast.\u00a0 It will motivate you to take John the Baptist\u2019s motto as your own: \u201cHe [Jesus] must become more and more, I must become less and less.\u201d (John 3:30)\u00a0 If you emblazon that on your heart, you\u2019ll soar like an eagle to the heights of holiness (which coincide with the greatest joys one can experience in this fallen valley of tears).<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t forget to pray for your imprisoned uncle as you launch out on your new adventure.\u00a0 He\u2019ll sure be praying for you.<\/p>\n
With high hopes,<\/p>\n
Uncle Eddy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Bertha, What a beautiful tradition!\u00a0 Taking your aspirant\u2019s uniform on today\u2019s Feast has a lot of significance.\u00a0 It shows that what you are \u201caspiring\u201d to as you enter a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":359,"featured_media":145992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3719],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-142504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncle-eddy"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"","pp_force_visibility":null,"pp_subpost_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_force_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_subpost_visibility":null,"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n