"Five Steps to a Fuller Life"
OPENING PRAYER
The Gift of Story
Holy One, you have given us the gift of story in our lives, ways of understanding who we are, ways of making sense of our world, of finding meaning and knowing how to respond to all that happens in our lives.
Please show us where our stories fall short or are too narrow, where they exclude rather than include, where they divide rather than unite.
Help us to see where a story we live out of may go amiss of what is real, where it allows us to escape becoming whole, where it lets us live comfortably in fear.
Fill us with your story, the story of unity and compassion and love.
Fill us with images that energize us and give us hope and lead us to the fundamental truth that you have tried to teach us all along: we are all one.
Amen.
Judy Cannato, Field of Compassion: How the New Cosmology is Transforming Spiritual Life.
FIVE STEPS TO A FULLER LIFE
"To be a witness for God is to be a living sign of God's presence in the world. What we live is more important than what we say, because the right way of living always leads to the right way of speaking. When we forgive our neighbors from our hearts, our hearts will speak forgiving words. When we are grateful, we will speak grateful words, and when we are hopeful and joyful, we will speak hopeful and joyful words."— Henri Nouwen
What is the most important decision you face?
If we really believe that the fullness of life we long for is found in union with Jesus, we will direct our whole lives toward acquiring that union. If we really believe Jesus is the way to the fullness of life, we will follow him; we will base everything we do on his words and examples (Id.).
This is not a one-time decision. Rather, “it is a recurring moment, a decision made and persevered in, a commitment….Every decision, every free choice, is an act of self-determination” (Id.). Fr. Knight reminds us,
Our commitments—the truths we choose to believe, the ideals we choose to embrace, the direction we choose to take, the goals we choose to pursue, the hopes we choose to live by—these are the enduring choices that shape our souls, make us the persons we are…” (Id., p. 3).
Fr. Knight offers us five choices that "are essential to our commitment to follow Jesus Christ” and that “lead to the total gift of ourselves in love.” They are “choices to die to ourselves and rise to being in Christ."
1. "Make Jesus Christ as savior an active participant in everything I do." We are called to recognize the need for Jesus in our life and through God’s grace and prayer, "to make a conscious act of faith that Jesus Christ is living within us, and to invite him to take part in every thought, word, action and decision of our life." (Id. at pp. 9, 10).
As Fr. Knight challenges us, the initial question we must begin with is whether we accept that Jesus Christ is "the way, the truth and the life” that will lead us to the fullness of life (See Jn 10:10b, 14:6). VIDEOS
"Is God in the Center of Your Life?" (Fr. Mike Schmitz)
We all desire a way of life full of meaning, productivity, and happiness. Jesus proclaims to be “the way, the truth and the life” that leads us to the fullness of life (See Jn 10:10b, 14:6). Therefore, as Fr. David Knight (d. 1921) challenges us in his book, Reaching Jesus: 5 Steps to a Fuller Life,* “The decision whether or not to believe that Jesus is the life we seek is the most important decision we will ever make, because it sets the course of our lives” (Id. at p. 2). He further states:
2. Choose to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, "actively devoting ourselves to continue learning from him at every moment of our lives" (Id. at p. 30). We do this primarily through actively participating at Mass, spending dedicated time in prayer, and reflecting on Jesus’ teachings, ways, and actions found in Scripture.
3. "[M]ake everything in my life and life-style bear witness to Jesus Christ" and the truth he proclaims (Id.). This requires a commitment to continual transformation of our lives through the power of the Holy Spirit.
4. Mediate the life of Christ through love and self-sacrificial service to others.
5. Take responsibility as stewards of our God-given gifts and talents to help transform our cultures to experience and live God’s reign of love, truth, justice, peace, goodness, healing, mercy, and salvation.
"Reaching Jesus - Five Steps to a Fuller Life" (Fr. David Knight)
"Living a Life of Meaning"
MUSIC
"Blessed Be Your Name"
"Draw Me Close to You"
"Center of My Life"
"I Belong to You"
OTHER RESOURCES
"No Matter Who You Are, Make Christ Your Number One" (Pope Francis)
"Put Jesus at the Center of Your Life" (Pope Francis)
"Jesus: The Heart of Catholic Faith" (Thomas Groome)
"Making Christ the Center of Your Life" (Bishop Robert Barron)
"Make Christ the Center of Your Prayer Life"(Fr. Ed Broom, OMV)
REFLECT ON YOUR EXPERIENCE
Have you made the decision that Jesus is the life you seek?
Do you allow Jesus to be an active participant in everything you do?
We encourage and invite you to spend time to reflect, pray, and write in your journal about what you have read, seen, heard, or experienced this week. You can find some questions you may wish to consider here.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, in now, and ever shall be.
Amen.
* David Knight, Reaching Jesus: 5 Steps to a Fuller Life (Cincinnati, Ohio:St. Anthony Messenger Press, 1998).