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Cathedral Series #1
Drawn to the Lord : Six Stories of Vocation
80 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1987
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About the author
Carlo Maria Martini
535 books34 followersCardinal Martini was an exegetical and theological scholar who has written more than 40 books, and was reputed to speak 11 languages.
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November 30, 2025
The year is 1982-83. Jesus is on the move, and so are the Jesus Freaks :)
"We’ have been requested again this year to publish the talks recorded during Archbishop Martini’s meetings with young people in the Cathedral of Milan. [...] It does not follow the strict order one might expect in a book, but it is rather the view of the Archbishop speaking to the crowds of young people who gathered to pray along with him."
"The Journey of Prayer with the evangelist Luke, The Problem of God and Man in the Psalms, and Life as Vocation in relation to the Eucharistic Christ who draws all to himself. The young people attended in ever growing numbers. They felt themselves understood, challenged, helped and loved — and so they kept attending on the first Thursday of every month.
It was not only those who belonged to groups like Catholic Action but — as was hoped from the beginning — young people came, often from quite a distance, and those who would not normally be in the habit of going to church. On several occasions the whole Cathedral was packed to bursting point." (8)
"The cross, which expresses God’s unconditional love for me and for my life, touches me through the Eucharist by the mysterious power of the Holy Spirit, poured out by the Jesus who died and rose again. Indeed, it is the only power able to renew and transform the world." (13)
"What hinders me from feeling the attraction of Jesus as something very real, drawing me powerfully?’
We are invited to ask the Lord to let us be transformed by the Eucharist so that we may know to what service he is calling us. In a little while we shall be silent in prayer: I will pray for you, and I want you also to pray that this mysterious attraction of the cross of Christ may also be alive in me and that I might better understand my calling in the service of God’s people." (14)
"Some might wonder whether [Maximilian Kolbe's] enthusiasm, his zeal, all this doing which occupied his life, were authentic. What put the seal upon all the particular choices of his everyday life was the way he died: This shows that behind all the actions of his life there was a choice of love that was absolute and definitive." (23)
"Reflecting on these texts of St John, which throw light both on the existence of Fr Kolbe and on every human existence, we can now ask ourselves a first question: What is my definitive calling, and to what am I called? In what way do I understand my own life as a call? Am I ready to orientate that life in such a way as to listen to God’s call?
And a second question: Do I keep my heart closed to anybody? If so, then the love of God does not dwell in me and I am not responding to my life as to a call. I may appear to do so but in fact, and at a deeper level, there is something missing in my response." (24)
"in the life of Charles de Foucauld, the apostolate of friendship is much more than just a method, it is his very vocation which he would summarise in one word: Nazareth. [It] represents the mystery of a hiddenness which is achieved not by separating oneself from others but by immersing oneself evermore in the lives of others." (40)
"There is no kind of Christian vocation that can ignore this aspect of practical witness: actions must come before words; before verbal proclamation must come sharing a generous and loving presence
to others, [...] If we imitate the spirit of Charles de Foucauld in living our own vocation, others who meet us will be helped to find God and — however humbly, silently or simply we do it — we can be the Lord’s instrument through whom he draws people to himself." (41)
"the phrase [...] which sums up Charles de Foucauld’s whole existence from his conversion is to make religion a matter of love. It is what I wish for each one of you." (42)
"[Regarding the Syro-Phoenician woman:] More theologically we would assert: God felt himself loved, felt that someone had unconditional trust in him; the woman had passed the test of
darkness and refusal and understood it as a test of love; she believed totally in love. She believed in it because she loved her daughter so completely." (50)
"Jesus sets up certain limits: this is not for you; it is not your vocation. It is a negative attitude to one who was mistaken about his vocation. We can imagine the disappointment of this man who, deeply grateful for his cure, wants to leave everything and follow Jesus in the same way as the chosen Twelve. But we should pay close attention to the words that follow the refusal. The man is told: ‘Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you.’ So he goes off to spread the good news about Jesus in the pagan region of Decapolis. These are words to ponder, since they convey the vocation of one who is not called like the Twelve, but nonetheless has a vocation to follow Jesus in the future building of the Church. [...]
What is he to tell? ‘What the Lord has done for you, and how he showed mercy to you.’ The message is closely linked to his own personality. He ‘tells’ by what is new in his own life, by his very manner of living, by the change that people see in him. Through this renewal he proclaims that his previous inability to communicate or work or make himself useful is now transformed into ability to do all these things.
There is one final significant point concerning this vocation: he is told, ‘Go home to your friends’. And the Evangelist adds, ‘he began to proclaim in the Decapolis’. It was not his calling to abandon all things — like Peter, James and the other apostles: he is sent home." (57-58)
"A second surprise for us was the discovery that our vocation is not so much to do something but a calling to become someone." (61)
"Marriage is a sign of the Church, a sign of humanity called to be united to Christ, a sign of all men and all women called to be one. Indeed, through the mystery of two persons, a man and a woman joined into one, we see in miniature the vocation of the Church and of all humanity. [...]
Scripture often speaks of this mystery, though frequently in parables and in dramatic or symbolic ways; and it would certainly be interesting to look at some pages of the Old Testament that tell of engagement, that is, at two people’s search for their one shared vocation. I think of texts in Genesis about Isaac and Sarah, about Jacob and Rebecca. I think of the Book of Tobias, of Ruth and the Song of Songs." (64)
"But if we recall how in the Bible the phrase ‘the third day’ can often mean ‘two days later’, (counting the first as one of three) we would actually arrive at placing the Cana episode on the sixth day of that great week, which is the day of the creation of man and woman." (65)
"on the other hand, Jesus’ intervention arose because he noticed the needs found in the situation of the man, his wife and their union: ‘They have no wine.’" (66)
"The whole of the fourth Gospel indeed draws out the links that run through the entire story of salvation. Towards the end of St John’s Gospel, we find another period of six days; and the sixth is the day on which Jesus dies upon the cross, with the Woman, Mary his mother, standing beside him. There Jesus restores man — the beloved disciple — to his fullness. The cross manifests fully the glory of God which only began to be manifested in that first miracle at Cana." (66)
"The man and woman go through an experience of frustration, of incapacity. They had counted entirely on their mutual understanding, on their being called to be one. And this vocation, their marriage feast, comes under threat because of their imprudence, lack of foresight, human weakness of various kinds. To broaden this idea further, though the man and woman feel themselves called to love and know this is a real vocation which they cannot do without, yet still in some profound sense they feel unable to love.
Admittedly, not everyone has the courage to make this admission, which is so deep and so radical. People prefer to blame the failure of their love on misunderstanding, ambiguity, nervousness, opposition, weariness, incompatibility or the boredom of daily life. It is perhaps rare for a man or woman to face up to this painful question: ‘Am I really capable of loving?’ Yet this is the most vital question in the whole of human existence: the human person, each one of us, is called to love; but are we really able to love?" (67)
"We’ have been requested again this year to publish the talks recorded during Archbishop Martini’s meetings with young people in the Cathedral of Milan. [...] It does not follow the strict order one might expect in a book, but it is rather the view of the Archbishop speaking to the crowds of young people who gathered to pray along with him."
"The Journey of Prayer with the evangelist Luke, The Problem of God and Man in the Psalms, and Life as Vocation in relation to the Eucharistic Christ who draws all to himself. The young people attended in ever growing numbers. They felt themselves understood, challenged, helped and loved — and so they kept attending on the first Thursday of every month.
It was not only those who belonged to groups like Catholic Action but — as was hoped from the beginning — young people came, often from quite a distance, and those who would not normally be in the habit of going to church. On several occasions the whole Cathedral was packed to bursting point." (8)
"The cross, which expresses God’s unconditional love for me and for my life, touches me through the Eucharist by the mysterious power of the Holy Spirit, poured out by the Jesus who died and rose again. Indeed, it is the only power able to renew and transform the world." (13)
"What hinders me from feeling the attraction of Jesus as something very real, drawing me powerfully?’
We are invited to ask the Lord to let us be transformed by the Eucharist so that we may know to what service he is calling us. In a little while we shall be silent in prayer: I will pray for you, and I want you also to pray that this mysterious attraction of the cross of Christ may also be alive in me and that I might better understand my calling in the service of God’s people." (14)
"Some might wonder whether [Maximilian Kolbe's] enthusiasm, his zeal, all this doing which occupied his life, were authentic. What put the seal upon all the particular choices of his everyday life was the way he died: This shows that behind all the actions of his life there was a choice of love that was absolute and definitive." (23)
"Reflecting on these texts of St John, which throw light both on the existence of Fr Kolbe and on every human existence, we can now ask ourselves a first question: What is my definitive calling, and to what am I called? In what way do I understand my own life as a call? Am I ready to orientate that life in such a way as to listen to God’s call?
And a second question: Do I keep my heart closed to anybody? If so, then the love of God does not dwell in me and I am not responding to my life as to a call. I may appear to do so but in fact, and at a deeper level, there is something missing in my response." (24)
"in the life of Charles de Foucauld, the apostolate of friendship is much more than just a method, it is his very vocation which he would summarise in one word: Nazareth. [It] represents the mystery of a hiddenness which is achieved not by separating oneself from others but by immersing oneself evermore in the lives of others." (40)
"There is no kind of Christian vocation that can ignore this aspect of practical witness: actions must come before words; before verbal proclamation must come sharing a generous and loving presence
to others, [...] If we imitate the spirit of Charles de Foucauld in living our own vocation, others who meet us will be helped to find God and — however humbly, silently or simply we do it — we can be the Lord’s instrument through whom he draws people to himself." (41)
"the phrase [...] which sums up Charles de Foucauld’s whole existence from his conversion is to make religion a matter of love. It is what I wish for each one of you." (42)
"[Regarding the Syro-Phoenician woman:] More theologically we would assert: God felt himself loved, felt that someone had unconditional trust in him; the woman had passed the test of
darkness and refusal and understood it as a test of love; she believed totally in love. She believed in it because she loved her daughter so completely." (50)
"Jesus sets up certain limits: this is not for you; it is not your vocation. It is a negative attitude to one who was mistaken about his vocation. We can imagine the disappointment of this man who, deeply grateful for his cure, wants to leave everything and follow Jesus in the same way as the chosen Twelve. But we should pay close attention to the words that follow the refusal. The man is told: ‘Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you.’ So he goes off to spread the good news about Jesus in the pagan region of Decapolis. These are words to ponder, since they convey the vocation of one who is not called like the Twelve, but nonetheless has a vocation to follow Jesus in the future building of the Church. [...]
What is he to tell? ‘What the Lord has done for you, and how he showed mercy to you.’ The message is closely linked to his own personality. He ‘tells’ by what is new in his own life, by his very manner of living, by the change that people see in him. Through this renewal he proclaims that his previous inability to communicate or work or make himself useful is now transformed into ability to do all these things.
There is one final significant point concerning this vocation: he is told, ‘Go home to your friends’. And the Evangelist adds, ‘he began to proclaim in the Decapolis’. It was not his calling to abandon all things — like Peter, James and the other apostles: he is sent home." (57-58)
"A second surprise for us was the discovery that our vocation is not so much to do something but a calling to become someone." (61)
"Marriage is a sign of the Church, a sign of humanity called to be united to Christ, a sign of all men and all women called to be one. Indeed, through the mystery of two persons, a man and a woman joined into one, we see in miniature the vocation of the Church and of all humanity. [...]
Scripture often speaks of this mystery, though frequently in parables and in dramatic or symbolic ways; and it would certainly be interesting to look at some pages of the Old Testament that tell of engagement, that is, at two people’s search for their one shared vocation. I think of texts in Genesis about Isaac and Sarah, about Jacob and Rebecca. I think of the Book of Tobias, of Ruth and the Song of Songs." (64)
"But if we recall how in the Bible the phrase ‘the third day’ can often mean ‘two days later’, (counting the first as one of three) we would actually arrive at placing the Cana episode on the sixth day of that great week, which is the day of the creation of man and woman." (65)
"on the other hand, Jesus’ intervention arose because he noticed the needs found in the situation of the man, his wife and their union: ‘They have no wine.’" (66)
"The whole of the fourth Gospel indeed draws out the links that run through the entire story of salvation. Towards the end of St John’s Gospel, we find another period of six days; and the sixth is the day on which Jesus dies upon the cross, with the Woman, Mary his mother, standing beside him. There Jesus restores man — the beloved disciple — to his fullness. The cross manifests fully the glory of God which only began to be manifested in that first miracle at Cana." (66)
"The man and woman go through an experience of frustration, of incapacity. They had counted entirely on their mutual understanding, on their being called to be one. And this vocation, their marriage feast, comes under threat because of their imprudence, lack of foresight, human weakness of various kinds. To broaden this idea further, though the man and woman feel themselves called to love and know this is a real vocation which they cannot do without, yet still in some profound sense they feel unable to love.
Admittedly, not everyone has the courage to make this admission, which is so deep and so radical. People prefer to blame the failure of their love on misunderstanding, ambiguity, nervousness, opposition, weariness, incompatibility or the boredom of daily life. It is perhaps rare for a man or woman to face up to this painful question: ‘Am I really capable of loving?’ Yet this is the most vital question in the whole of human existence: the human person, each one of us, is called to love; but are we really able to love?" (67)
Displaying 1 of 1 review