October 10. Sunday 28B. Fr Peter asked all the young people to give some serious thought to the question of vocations.  Maurice had already been asking himself if God was calling him to give up everything and become a religious.  The priests were always going on about how necessary and important vocations are.  He discussed it too with his grandmother, as his parents didn’t seem very supportive.  She told him, “We all have a mission to follow Jesus, but there are many ways of doing this, and whatever way God is asking of you, don’t forget that you will still be called to care for families, because they are the foundation blocks of the Church.” “So I would have 100 children to love?” he thought. 

Jesus said, “There is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters, or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the Gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now, in this time with persecutions and in the age to come eternal life. Mark 10:17-30.  Pope Francis:   The value in virginity lies in its symbolising a love that has no need to possess the other; in this way it reflects the freedom of the Kingdom of Heaven.  AL161.  Biblical texts give no reason to assert the inferiority of marriage nor the superiority of virginity or celibacy, based on sexual abstinence.  Different states of life complement one another and consequently some can be more perfect in one way and others in another.   AL 159. Reflect, share, act and pray.   Do I value the sacrifices made by those who give up everything for the kingdom?