Photo Caption: God did amazing things through our smallness at CCO Carleton. It started with the fall retreat!

Six minute read.

I have one supporter who has the gift of prophecy. That means he can speak truth into my life. We usually meet once a year. Sometimes we meet on campus, other times at coffee shops. We prayed one summer afternoon and he shared 2 Corinthians 12:9, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” I can definitely attest to God’s grace; it really is all we need. My last sabbatical reflection takes us into the theme of power in weakness. I learned from my first years on CCO staff that God equips the called. We are not capable to carry out God’s work on our own human weakness; it is only by God’s goodness and grace that we are able to do anything. God uses the little we are and turns it into something great. Humility and greatness go hand in hand. It’s something I’ve aspired to live out. God has a great calling for our lives. He will provide the way through it all!

“My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness. So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.”

2 Corinthians 12: 9-10

I struggled with some health problems right after my first assignment with CCO. My doctor prescribed medication and rest, which I diligently followed. On a spiritual level, I upped my prayer game. The evening examen was a spiritual practice I began during the month of recovery. Well, it turns out that within a few weeks, I became better! And guess what? I stopped my examen when I returned to spiritual and natural consolation and health. Oh how fickle!

Life continued and I had my first full season of support raising. I raised enough money to start my year at CCO Carleton. After our outreach season ended, we had a fall retreat at St. Brigid’s camp.. There was an evening of Eucharisitc Adoration and I felt intense desolation. I felt separated and I wondered if CCO staff was a good job for me. Recognizing that I felt discouraged, deflated, and dejected, I turned to prayer. The Lord prompted me to begin the evening examen once again. Well, I came out of that intense desolation with two realizations; one, that spiritual laziness can be detrimental to our growth and progress in holiness, and two, never leave God when the times are good. I’ve prayed this prayer pretty much every day since that retreat. When I speak of power in weakness, I speak that God is good and anything good comes from His grace. We are weak; to rely on anything but His grace is feeble and flimsy.

GRACE

When I was a student, I attended CCO Rise Up Ottawa. I went to one of the workshops that equipped us to pray an evening examen that I shared in the earlier story. Funnily enough it took me five years before I put it into practice. It’s never too late to begin again! It goes like this: GRACE. It takes about ten minutes to end our day.

Gratitude—what is one thing we are thankful for?

Request for light—invite the Spirit to guide us. We need His true light!

Account of attitudes and actions—look over the entirety of the day, examining our relationship with Christ through our intentions and behaviours, thoughts and intentions. We visually go through the day, passing over the less important moments and dwelling on the more important ones.

Charting our course—what is one thing that needs changing, challenging, confession, or simply continuing?

Encouragement—we finish by asking the Lord to give us the grace and joy to carry out our resolution for tomorrow.

There we have it. Honestly, commit to this prayer for the rest of your life and you will be a changed person.

The Little Way

God uses the small, lowly, and humble. The path to holiness is not pride, but humility. It is a truthful acceptance of who we are: sinners, in need of a Saviour. We cannot achieve salvation by our own efforts. We have to admit that we are unworthy, and that in fact, Jesus Christ died for us. Already, we have a great need for humility. Pride says my way. Humility says otherwise.

A great example for the humble and little way was St. Therese, also known as the Little Flower. She, along with St. Francis Xavier are CCO’s two patron saints. They are both patron saints of mission. It is quite ironic because she lived in a convent for her adult life. Her writings contain a rich understanding of God’s love and a great trust and faith in the Lord. She recognized her smallness, her littleness, and that is what brought her to great sanctity. She is a model of holiness for us all. And I believe that her intimate encounters with Jesus Christ bought the souls she is now leading towards Heaven. She is a wonderful rose in the garden of saints.

Humility is not putting ourselves down. It is not a denial of what good we have to offer the world. Sometimes we think humility means to be trampled upon. No! That could be farther from the truth. Humility is an acceptance of our gifts and talents. Are you good at singing? Then do not downplay your talent! Go, sing! Are you good at writing? Then do not hesitate to share your sabbatical reflections! Bless people with your words. Humility also recognizes our weaknesses and failings, but does not wallow in them. This virtue helps us to know our limitations and work with them. Humility, rightly understood, is putting ourselves at the service of the other, strengths and weaknesses combined.

A Light to the Nations

Humility goes hand in hand with greatness. During a summer of support raising before ministry at CCO Carleton, my teammate Michelle and I received the news that our supervisor decided to leave. While we both were shocked, I had faith something great would come out of this unfortunate situation. On our own, we took it to prayer. We later shared and found out that we both reflected on Isaiah 49, which happens to be a classic CCO Scripture! Verse 6 reads, “ ‘It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” We both believed God would do something special with our yes, even though I was in my first year and Michelle became a new supervisor.

It was a blessed year. We had an amazing executive team and we witnessed the Gospel take strong root on our campus. In fact, those years at CCO Carleton bore much fruit. Within a few years, we had about ten students from our ministry apply and work full-time as a CCO missionary. God used us in a powerful way. I remember saying to Michelle that we would look back at that year and marvel at God’s strength, when we were in fact small and little. We decrease so that He can increase. Humility is a necessary part to God’s greatness.

Humility goes hand in hand with magnanimity. Our President Jeff shared about the virtues of humility and magnanimity before my cohort support raised in our first year. I was quite inspired. Magnanimity is the virtue that strives after great things. It recognizes our great gift we are to the world. We are great for who we are, not necessarily what we do. It gives light to the question, “How can I bring out greatness in others?” Greatness is measured by how much we can lift others higher.

During that fruitful year at CCO Carleton, I asked one of my student executive members to inspire this virtue of magnanimity. A big part to magnanimity is dreaming. “If Saint John Paul II came to our campus, what would he like about our ministry and what do you think he would want to us to change?” I don’t think we dream enough. Did you know that God has given you a set of giftedness and talents to share with the world? He has a particular calling for each one of us; a radical vision for changing the hearts of others while first being changed ourselves!

Summary

My sabbatical reflections have come to an end. The overarching theme is that God has a great calling for our lives. He has a plan intended for our good, to bring life, joy, and zeal to the world around us. You have journeyed with me through my stories and missionary adventures, from my time at CCO Carleton, CCO Concordia, CCO Store, and CCO uOttawa these last five years.

God waits for us in prayer, which can be a time of great preparation. When we engage in His mission, we will find the Cross, or rather, the Cross will find us. But let us not be afraid, for the Cross will carry us through. Suffering is part of the calling, but we will learn a great deal from it and purchase a great number of souls.

We might become fearful in our undertakings. But as St. John Paul II proclaimed, “Be not afraid!” Every great journey has its barriers and challenges; fear is an obstacle Christ wants us to overcome. God has redeemed us. There is more! There is the life-giving Spirit that casts out all fear. In mission, we can expect the Holy Spirit to change our lives and countless others. When we give Him permission, we will encounter its fruits of peace, love, and joy, among many others. And as this reflection discussed, only by God’s grace can we do what He’s asked of us. When we are small, God is tall. Let us be little and humble as we allow God to work His powerful love.

God wants to call you. His call might come unexpectedly, and it might come inconveniently. Nevertheless, when He calls: will you respond? Do not fear; only have love. For Jesus Christ came into this world to save us and give us life, life to the full.

This sabbatical reflection is part one of a five-themed series. Click here for the others!