Note: On Tuesdays and some Sundays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.
It was the year 30 or so when Peter got out of the boat and walked on water. It didn’t work for long, of course, as he then lacked complete trust in his friend Jesus. That would come later. He would be fearless in his obedience, all the way to his 
death.
It was 1924 when Helena Kowalska, almost nineteen and nobody special in the eyes of most of the world, left a dance and got on a train to Warsaw to join a convent. She was at a dance when Jesus gave her the message; she didn’t tarry long enough to say good-bye to her parents. When she got to Warsaw, not one convent embraced her with open arms. One finally agreed to take her when she could pay for her habit. It took a year of domestic work before she could do that… and took the name Faustina. She would be fearless in her effort to be obedient to the Lord’s request that the first Sunday after Easter should be celebrated as the Feast of Mercy and that the prayer practice He gave her, the Divine Mercy Chaplet, would become known.
It was 1946 when Mother Teresa was on a train headed for Darjeeling, India, and heard what she referred to as a “call within a call.” She was thirty-six, and had been teaching in India for seventeen years. In the next fifty years, she would be fearless in answering that call, ministering to the poorest of the poor around the world through the Missionaries of the Charity Sisters, shrugging off criticisms and accusations.
Peter, Faustina, and Teresa were all ordinary people; they had flaws and fears. What made them different was their willingness to put aside their own stuff and follow. And we are capable of the same. It can be difficult to believe that, to believe in ourselves. May we all remember it’s not about us, but about God, who doesn’t make mistakes… and provides all we need if only we trust enough to say yes.
