Jesus Calls Others to Join Him

Guide: Being Drawn to Him

As Jesus reveals his story to us, we can’t help becoming drawn to him. This week, we have the privilege of contemplating Jesus as the one who calls companions to service with him. If we were inclined, in the past, to view God’s calls to us as obligations about which we might be ambivalent, we are not there now. In this retreat, we are growing in a sense of such attraction to the person of Jesus and his way of responding to his own call from God. We are being drawn to be with him with deep desire.

The Scripture readings this week give us the text of various calls that the Gospel writers present for us. Throughout this week, let them flow in and out of consciousness. Any time we can take to prayerfully imagine any of these scenes will enrich the week. We can enter into the scenes, to see and to hear, to be caught up in the drama of the call-and-response.

This week’s real power is in our ability to let it be one in which we become keenly faithful, throughout each day, to a sense of Jesus’ being with us in our day. As I awake, prepare for the day, go to do my work, interact with people, take breaks, experience a range of emotions, make mistakes, struggle to be zealous, find opportunities to be compassionate, make tough decisions, experience the joy of loving and being loved, and return to sleep with grateful prayer — in all of my day — I can savor the reality of Jesus calling me to join him in saying “yes.”

We are experiencing the power of this retreat. Praying over and over for the grace to know him more intimately, to fall in love with him more deeply, and to be drawn into the pattern of his own life more completely does indeed transform our lives. Love changes the way we make choices because love changes what we desire. The more we fall in love with Jesus the more we love what he loves. Being with him becomes a growing desire.

Use all the helps this week. The practical helps will help name three degrees of being with Jesus. Our journey is one that will call us to rearrange the choices of our lives to allow us to be more and more with Jesus. The one who asks us, “What are you looking for?” knows our answer, and always invites us to “Come, follow me.”

Consider sharing the graces you have received
this week with others making the retreat.

Listen to each week of the Online Retreat
on a CD or on your mp3 player.