For those of you that responded to my last post, I am sorry to keep you waiting.  Here it is. Fresh from this Abby mind of mine and onto your computer screen. A new blog! (cue cheering, applause and loud whooping noises)

I’ve recently started going to spiritual direction with Fr. Tom.  I love that man.  He has a way of helping me see things in a different light, and yesterday was no different.

For the past year of my life, I have been going through a sort of rediscovery and as Fr. Hebert Alphonso says (and I am paraphrasing), revealing my true identity and personal vocation.

You often hear people say, “I’m trying to find myself” and while I think people are sincere in that endeavor, I think they are way off base.  From the beginning of time, God knew me.  “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name: you are mine.” Isaiah 43:1.  The God who created and formed me knows me and He knows what He has planned for me.

Read that verse again.  The word “you” is very important.  It’s about you!

God has a unique plan and purpose just for you.

So, how does that negate the worldly view of “finding myself”?

You are not lost.  You cannot find what is not lost.  God created you to fulfill a specific role in the story of creation.  Now, all you have to do is listen to God and allow Him to whisper His grandest plans for your life and then it’s up to you to say yes.

That’s another thing Fr. Tom talked to me about yesterday.  Saying yes.  Particularly saying yes, like our Mother Mary said yes.  Her fiat - or decree - “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38) was Mary’s yes to the will of God.

In applying my earlier thoughts, that God has a unique plan for us since the beginning of time, we can see that God had planned to make Mary the Mother of God since creation.  And all she had to do was say yes.

I once proposed a similar idea to my teens at Church.

Imagine being 14 (Mary was pretty young) and an angel of the Lord coming to you.

“Hail,  Mary full of grace! The Lord is with you.” (Luke 1:28)

What would you say?  What would you do?

“Who me? Mary?  Nope, you might want to try a few houses down.”

But not Mary. She said yes.  She allowed God’s will for her life and for His plan for creation to be carried out.  And that’s what we are called to do.  God invites us to say yes to Him in everything.

Fr. Tom told me to start saying yes to God in the small things, and that would make saying yes to the big things even easier.

So, how do we begin to say yes?

Fr. Tom suggested I wake up in the morning and before I put my feet on the floor say, “Praise God, I am here to live another day. I have another chance to do Your will, God.  Let it be done to me.”  And that’s what I did.

Think about the things in your life God is asking of you. What is your true identity?  What do you need to say yes to?

As for me, I’m still in discovery mode.  Like I said earlier, I’m working on saying yes in the small things, in hopes that when God asks me to do the big things I can look back and see God’s beautiful and unique plan unfolding.