he world.

CHAPTER V

DOES CHRIST WANT ME?

Said a boy one day, "How in the world does a person ever know he is to
be a priest?" This little lad was a budding philosopher: he wanted to
know the reason of things. But many an older person has been puzzled
by the same question. Some boys and girls, having a distorted notion
of the nature of a vocation, imagine that Almighty God picks out
certain persons, without consulting them, and destines them for the
priesthood or religious life, whereas all other persons he excludes
from this privilege. In other words, they think God does it all.

Of course, we know there is an overruling Providence, Who watches over
all His creatures, and particularly over His elect, distributing His
graces and favors as He wills, and bringing all things to their
appointed ends. If, for instance, a boy is blind, and for this reason
no religious congregation will accept him, it is apparent that God
does not design him for the religious life, though even for him the
private practice of the counsels might still be open.

But we must not imagine that God settles everything in this world
independently of our free will. He wishes us not to steal, but we may,
if we choose, become thieves. Two boys of the same qualifications, let
us say, have the general invitation of the Scripture to a life of
perfection; they both have the same grace, which one accepts and the
other rejects. What makes the vocation in the one case? The action of
the boy himself in choosing to follow the invitation. And why has not
the other boy a vocation? Because he declines to correspond with the
grace. God does His part; He issues the call to all who are free from
impediment and hindrance. Any one who wishes can accept the call and
thus, in a sense, make his own vocation, for God's necessary help is
ever ready to hand for those who will use it.

We may here remark that, while the practice of all virtue comes from
man's free will, it also springs in a higher and greater degree from
God, the author of grace. Without Him we can do nothing. "Who
distinguisheth thee? Or what hast thou that thou hast not received?"
asks St. Paul (I Cor. iv: 7). God's grace must necessarily precede and
accompany every supernatural action. In a very true sense, while a
religious may say: "I am such voluntarily of my own free choice," he
must also admit, "I am a religious by the grace of God, Who prepared
me, aided me by external and internal helps, e