Doubling Down on Gratitude

By REV. JASON KERN

There was a moment in my life when I was at the end of my eighth grade year of school that I will never forget. My mom had just been diagnosed with a rare liver disease that the doctors at the Mayo Clinic considered terminal. Additionally, I was preparing to leave the Catholic school that was so familiar to me and enter the public high school which was six times bigger per class. I was feeling overly anxious and insecure about what the future was holding for me and my family, to say the least. One day, by the grace of God, I knelt at the side of my bed and prayed. I remember my prayer being, “God please take care of my family.” Suddenly and dramatically, I felt a deep peace enter into my soul. The fears and racing thoughts subsided. I was given this jolt of confidence that led me to assert as certain that no matter what happened to my mom, somehow, God was going to take care of us.

I look back on that experience and really do see that in that moment began this pursuit of God and his purpose for my life. I began realizing that God was asking for me to trust in Him and to allow Him to provide for me in ways that I had never considered previously. My life in some sense began in this moment. I look back at that experience and encounter with grace now with a fondness and appreciation for God’s goodness. Over and over again the Lord has renewed His goodness in my life by proving His love for me and taking care of me.

This is the spirit of confidence in the Lord that draws my heart this Christmas season and new year. I am experiencing in my prayer an invitation to simply give thanks to God for how He takes care of me and the people in my life. Even when there is adversity and trial, far from being stuck in sadness or despondency, I am moved more and more to trust and to double down on the good God is bringing about in this circumstance.

One of the ways I see God’s goodness in our times is the quality and number of men studying for the priesthood in our diocese. As of this writing, we have given out six applications for the seminary for next fall. This might not sound like a giant number, but there have been times in not-so-distant years where having six seminarians total would have felt like we weren’t doing too poorly. I sincerely do not attribute this number to any one thing we as a diocese are doing or because we are better in any way than a diocese that is struggling with numbers. I sincerely regard it as a particular blessing from God and an opportunity to praise His goodness and faithfulness.

The one place we can attribute our results is our concerted efforts to pray with full voice and conviction that God answers our requests. He desires us to call out to Him and beg the Harvest Master to send laborers (Mt 9:38). God wants our complete dependence on Him and the sincerity of this so that we don’t become boastful but we become grateful. I am doubling down on my gratitude and praise of Almighty God for the gift of our seminarians, each one of them, and then asking God to give us more men who are generous with the Lord and eager to lay down their life for their friends (Jn 15:13).

Rev Jason Kern is the Director of Vocations