Appendix 1: Which Questions Determine the Direction of Your Life?

What makes some people do great things? The great heroes and saints in our world, what made them different? I am sure the answers can be long and complex, but as I come to complete twenty five years as a priest, one insight I have learned over the years is that I am more interested in young people’s questions than their answers, because their questions indicate the direction of their search—the direction of their life.

Think about it: If there is a treasure to be found, but you don’t even ask the question about whether there is a treasure or where it might be, the only way you will find it is if you accidentally run into it. In life superficial treasures are found accidentally, great treasures are found through asking questions and searching for the answers.

If a person wants to be a doctor, there are questions which need to be considered about goals and how to achieve them. If you don’t ask the right questions, or ask the wrong questions, you don’t go anywhere or you go in the wrong direction.

What about your life? What questions do you ask and in what direction do they point you? Look at the copy of the card printed in this article. If you ask simple questions like, “How can my wants and desires be fulfilled?” –this question will move you in a direction of selfishness. The best young people I have ever met ask a very different set of questions. They recognize that they are not the origin of their existence. There is a God who created them and everything we have and are find their origin in God’s gift to us. This insight leads a person to ask, then how can I know more about this God? Why did He create me and for what mission in life? Once you start asking these kinds of questions and bringing them into prayer, the Lord will lead you on a search. As you persevere in seeking God in this prayer, your questions will lead to some answers and then to deeper questions and then to deeper answers.

Every man in the seminary or deacon formation is there because through prayer he is asking the deeper questions. Every person in religious life asks this kind of question. The best young people dating and the best marriages ask the deeper questions. What direction is your life taking? You have one life to live and one life to give. How is the Lord asking you to give yours?

God is calling you to a special mission. Search. Ask the deeper questions. Bring them to prayer. Come to the retreats we offer during the year. Stay connected to your parish and the Sacraments. Please feel free to contact your Office of Vocations. You will then find your deepest happiness and lead others to find theirs.