Office of Vocations
Rev. Joseph Hirsch
Director of Vocations
Diocese of La Crosse
jhirsch@dioceseoflacrosse.com
Secretary:
Heather Hanson
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 At the Last Supper Jesus said to his Apostles,
“It was not you who chose me, it was I who chose you
to go forth and bear fruit. Your fruit must endure, so that all
you ask the Father in my name he will give you” (John
15.16)
The saints were called to do God’s works, but
what about you? Why did God create you? What mission does He
have for you such that He chose to create you?
We spend so much time figuring out what we
will do for college and career and yet how much time do we spend
trying to figure out what Jesus meant by this passage and what
His mission for us might be? How much time have you invested in
discovering God’s plan for your life?
Does the Lord want you to be married? Single?
Priest? Sister? I find many who will ask, “I wonder what
I want to do with my life?” and I find another smaller
group of young and other aged people who are asking a very
different and more challenging question: “I wonder what
God wants me to do with my life?” The question you
choose to ask will have a direct impact on the direction your
life will take and those whom God wants to entrust to your
care.
What would happen if a group of young people
were to make this prayer: “Lord, if you have something
special which needs to be done--even if it is difficult,
especially if it is difficult—I pray for the grace to say,
yes—Give me the grace to do something challenging for You with
my life.” Jesus changed the world with a small group of
men. All the saints made this kind of surrender. What about
you? St. Paul said it with his words and with his life:
“None of us lives as his own master and none of us dies as his
own master. While we live we are responsible to the Lord, and
when we die we die as his servants. Both in life and in death
we are the Lord’s”(Romans 14.7-9).
The Lord tends not to answer with claps of
thunder or visions but through the still whisper heard in prayer
and waiting. When I was a college student Fr. Burke (now Bishop
Burke) told me to spend time in the Blessed Sacrament chapel.
He said, “You will find your vocation through prayer before
the Blessed Sacrament.” This prayer has changed my life and
truly has led me to the priesthood.
I invite and challenge you to make this prayer
of surrender. If we could only learn to make this personal
surrender to Jesus Christ there would not be a shortage of holy
priests, deacons, religious, as well as holy married persons.
I also invite you to give me a call or an
email so that we can talk further about God’s call for you and
how to grow in your discernment of His call.
May the Lord Jesus truly be the Lord of all
that we do and are. Asking God’s blessing for you and the
intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe, I am
Rev. Joseph Hirsch
Director of Vocations
Diocese of La Crosse
jhirsch@dioceseoflacrosse.com
Each of you has a special mission in life, and
you are each called to be a disciple of Christ. Many of you will
serve God in the vocation of Christian married life; some of you
will serve him as dedicated single persons; some as priests and
religious. But all of you must be the light of the world. To
those of you who think that Christ may be inviting you to follow
him in the priesthood or the consecrated life I make this
personal appeal: I ask you to open your hearts generously to
him; do not delay your response. The Lord will help you to know
his will; he will help you to follow your vocation courageously.
-Pope John Paul II
Youth Gathering, St. Louis, 1999
My Mission in Life
God has created me to do Him some definite
service. He has committed some work to me, which He has not
committed to another. I have my mission. I may never know it
in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. I am a link
in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not
created me for naught. I shall do good; I shall do His work. I
shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place,
while not intending it if I do but keep His commandments.
Therefore, I will trust Him, whatever I am; I can never be
thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him, in
perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him. If I am in sorrow, my
sorrow may serve Him. He does nothing in vain. He knows what
He is about. He may take away my friends. He may throw me among
strangers. He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink,
hide my future from me. Still, He knows what He is about.
-John Henry Cardinal Newman
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