Point for prayerful consideration:
God calls us in a personal manner.

Brief Notes on the Theme:

In calling us by name, God awakens us to our true selves, giving us a sense of identity - who and what we are before God. Yet, this identity is always within the context of a community of persons in which we feel a sense of belonging.

We are born into a human family. We grow as we learn to relate with others and with our world. In our relationships, we discover that our actions, reactions or non-actions affect one another and the quality of life we are all meant to live. We feel a sense of responsibility not only for our own destiny but for the destiny of others. Only when we have responded to what God is offering us and have acted responsibly towards life, do we receive a sense of dignity as persons.

Identity, community, responsibility, and dignity - these are all part of God's promise to each of us as we listen to the voice of divine invitation.

Scripture Meditation #1

Genesis 12:1-5..."In you all people of the earth will be blessed. I will make your name great."

Guiding Notes
God's words to Abraham sound more like a command than an invitation. Abraham is being asked to abandon all his sources of identity and security - his country, family, and home - for a place God will show him.
What impelled Abraham to respond in faith? What is in God's promise that made Abraham abandon all and follow a life of utter insecurity?
God promises Abraham to make him a great nation, to bless him and to make his name great. As we look more closely at God's promise, we see the attractiveness of it. When a nation is great, its citizens feel a great sense of pride and dignity in their being part of it. That nation's founding mother or father is in turn considered great - her or his name respected, honored and remembered by present and future generations.
As an old man, Abraham is as good as dead, for he has no sons to bear his name, a name that will be carried with pride by his children and his children's children. Therefore, God's call fills him with hope that life will spring forth from his sterile relationship with Sarah. Out of their nothingness comes a new beginning.
Reflection Questions
a) Abraham's life is a paradigm of what it means to be a person of faith. In what ways does this text speak to me?
b) What are the sources of my identity and security? What does the call to "leave country, family and home" represent for me?
c) How do God's promises speak to me in my situation?
d) What are my feelings and realizations?

Scripture Meditation #2

Genesis 17:15-17… "I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations…" and,
Genesis 21:1-7… "God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me."

Guiding Notes
In keeping with the patriarchal tradition of the bible, the call of Sarah to become the "mother of nations" is submerged in the call of Abraham. Perhaps we need to learn how to reread her story so we may also experience God's graciousness to her not from our biased point of view, but from a fresh vantage point, which is our belief that God calls man and woman alike to dignity and identity.
In the past we have only considered the call of Abraham as a model of a faithful response to God's invitation and promise. Perhaps we will have a more wholistic experience of God if we also look at the meaningfulness of Sarah's vocation and response to God's graciousness, even if her vocation seems to be closely tied to that of her husband, Abraham.
In the first passage, Gen. 17:15-19, God does not speak directly to Sarah. God's message to her is coursed through Abraham. In fact we don't hear her voice, except when the narrator allows her to express the meaningfulness of her experience in Gen. 21:6-7.
God promises to make Sarah fruithful in the midst of her barrenness and emptiness. It is only in her emptiness that God can come to her to fill her. Like Sarah, God is inviting us to empty ourselves of anything that blocks God's Spirit from working in us. God is inviting us to trust and to believe that the divine presence in our life can turn our barrenness into fruitfulness.
Reflection Questions
a) In what ways does Sarah's experience of emptiness and barrenness speak to me? How has God turned these experiences of emptiness to fullness or fruitfulness?
b) How is God inviting me to live a life of fruitfulness?
c) How does God's promise to Sarah speak to me in my situation?
d) What are my feelings, insights and realizations?

Scripture Meditation #3

Exodus 3:1-12..."Moses! Moses! Go now...I am sending you to bring my people out of Egypt...I will be with you."
Guiding Notes
God calls Moses at a time when he had already settled down to a quiet life - with a family of his own and an occupation. In Midian, far away from the sufferings and misfortunes of his people in Egypt, he was living an ordinary life - each day pasturing his father-in-law's sheep.
Paradoxically, the farther away Moses leads his sheep, the closer he comes to God's holy place - the mountain of Horeb. There, God breaks through the ordinariness and routine of his life. God calls out Moses' name from the middle of the burning bush. (In the Old Testament, fire is one of the manifestations of God's presence.) The only way Moses could approach God's presence is by "taking off his sandals." This action is symbolic of how we must approach God in prayer - by first stripping ourselves of our anxious concerns, worries, self-centered desires and ambitions which block our way to God. Only when we have done so can we be awakened to our true mission in life, as Moses was awakened to his mission to lead his people out of Egypt.
God's promise of presence to Moses endures for all generation. God is with us always as our source of strength and confidence in living our vocation.
Reflection Questions
a) In what ways does Moses' call speak to me?
b) Am I allowing God to break through the routine of my everyday life? How do I experience God's presence in my everyday life?
c) What are the self-centered desires and concerns that I must divest myself in order to hear God's call?
d) What are my feelings and realizations?

Scripture Meditation #4

Mark 10:28-31..."Whoever has left house or brothers or sisters, or father or mother, or children, or lands for my sake and for the Gospel will not lose his (her) reward."

Guiding Notes
Jesus' promise to his disciples echoes Yahweh's promise to Abraham. Abraham and Sarah abandon all for the land God was showing them. Jesus' disciples give up everything for the sake of Jesus and the Gospel. Thus, the disciples' call is, first of all, a response and commitment to the person of Jesus and to his mission - a relationship that is more personal and interpersonal than that of Abraham and Moses to Yahweh.
What is Jesus' promise to those who make the supreme sacrifice? A hundredfold! The one who offers oneself in service for the Kingdom will not only find happiness but friendships and many unexpected blessings as well.

Reflection Questions
a) In what ways does this scripture passage speak to me?
b What do I have to give up in order to commit myself to Christ and his mission?
c) In what ways am I experiencing Jesus' promise of a hundredfold?
d) What are my feelings and realizations?

Other Scripture Suggestions

o Isaiah 43:1-4..."I have called you by your name, you are mine..."
How am I experiencing God's call in a personal manner?
o Isaiah 49:1-7..."Yahweh called me from my mother's womb."
How has God been present to me in my life history?
o Joshua 1:1-7..."I will be with you as I was with Moses..."
How has God been with me in all the events of my life?
o Hosea 2:16-25..."So I am going to allure her, lead her once more into the desert where I can speak to her heart."
In what ways have I experienced God leading me into the wilderness of my life in order to speak to my heart?
o Song 2:10-17...My lover spoke and said to me, "Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come with me."
In what ways have I experienced the tender invitation and leading of God throughout my life history?
o Matthew 1:20-25..."An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, 'Joseph... do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife.'"
What is God saying to me through my fears and apprehensions regarding the decision I am to make?
o Revelations 3:20-22..."If anyone hears my call and opens the door, I will come in to him and have supper with him, and he with me."
In what ways am I experiencing God's gracious visitation and presence in my life?