“Consult Not Your Fears…”

(Prayer offered on the Public Address system for the entire La Salle Academy educational community on Thursday morning, 11 October 2018)

Let us remember that we are in the holy presence of a loving God.

Yesterday, most of us here at La Salle spent our day focused on standards as we took the PSAT’s. Today I want to talk about a totally different kind of standard – not one that can be measured by filled in bubbles on an answer sheet, but one that is measured by our lives and what we do with it.

Today, we, Catholics, celebrate the feast day of Pope St. John XXIII of Vatican II fame. He was the mischievous son of a poor farmer who unexpectedly changed the world as we know it. I’m not going to tell you his life story – you can look him up on Wikipedia in a few minutes to find out who this Pope St. John XXIII was.

I do want to share with you though some words of his that inspire me:

“Consult not your fears, but your hopes and dreams.

Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential.

Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in but with what it is still possible for you to do.” (Pope St. John XXIIII).

Powerful words from a humble man.

Let me ask you – how often do your fears guide your thoughts and actions? (Pause) How often do you focus on your failings instead of focusing on the infinite potential that you possess? (Pause)

My challenge for you – really for all of us – today is to take one concrete step towards pursuing one of your dreams, no matter how much fear you experience in the process.

Let us pray:

Lord God, we are creatures who are often led by fear.

Dispel the fear from our hearts today so that – like Pope St. John XXIII – we may flourish as human beings and achieve our dreams. Amen.

 

St. John Baptist de La Salle … pray for us.

Pope St. John XXIII … pray for us.

Live Jesus in our hearts … forever.

Charles da Silva–Religion Teacher