This is not a “Friday Book Pick,” but it is the fruit of something I read recently in a great book by Mother Mary Francis, PCC, entitled “Anima Christi,” in which she reflects and expounds on each line of the beautiful prayer for which the book is named. In chapter ten, which focuses on the invocation, “In hora mortis meae voca me, et jube me veneire ad te” (“In the hour of my death, call me and bid me to come to Thee”), she writes: “While the prayer is immediately concerned with that final call which is death, the same thing is true of every one of God’s calls in our lives…. God calls us at our birth; God calls us at our death. God calls us every day of our lives. And for one reason only: that we should come to Him.” When I first read these words, I stopped right there. The Lord calls me daily, and His simple desire when He calls is that I come to Him. How beautiful! And utterly simple! And, as Mother Mary Francis points out, the conclusion logically follows that if, like a close friend, I come to Him when He calls throughout my life, then it will be the most natural thing, when He calls me at the hour of my death, that I will come to Him as readily and simply as always.
Mother Mary Francis has unveiled a “key” here for me, which unlocks and simplifies things, clarifying what is and what is not being asked of me. Simply stated, when I become aware of the Lord’s call, in any of the infinite variety of creative ways He uses to catch my attention and summon me, He is really only asking one thing: that I come to Him. He’s not asking me to take on everyone else’s difficulties, to solve all the problems of the world, or even to figure anything out on my own. He wants me to come to Him with my inspiration, desire, concern, or with nothing at all, not run from Him in a flurry of distressed activity, confusion, or discouragement. No wonder why the word “come” is so often found on our Lord’s lips in the Scriptures. “Come and see.” “Come, follow me.” “Come to me all you who labor and are burdened.” “Come away by yourselves and rest a while.” “The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come!’”
For me, this insight lifts a burden. Sometimes, in prayer, I can get bogged down and feel pressure or anxiety because I’m trying to figure out what the Lord is saying or asking of me. Now I hold the “key”; my part is simple. Whatever the situation is, He wants me to come to Him, both now and at the hour of my death. Amen!
Sr. Kelly Francis, CFR