Quo Vadis?

Quo Vadis?

These were the words of St. Peter to our Lord, as tradition has it, as bumbling St. Peter was running away from Rome in Anno Domini (A.D. - the year of our Lord) 64. Well, perhaps he didn't speak to him in Latin, but perhaps he did. He was running, afterall, from Rome, where he had preached, perhaps even in Latin. So it is plausible that St. Peter spoke to our Lord these very words: "Quo Vadis?" "Where are you going?" When Jesus responded, "I am going to Rome to be crucified again." St. Peter questioned, "You will to be crucified again?" Jesus: "Yes, I shall again be crucified." St. Peter, ashamedly: "Lord, I will return and follow you." At that Jesus ascended into heaven and St. Peter was crucified, upside down since he deemed himself unworthy of being crucified as was our Lord.

St. Peter was running: running from that to which God had called him, running from the Cross. Each of us has those moments in our lives when we hear the voice of the Lord gently or boisterously asking, "Where are you going?" One of the most important ways in which our Lord asks us this is in regard to our vocation. Where are you going? What are you doing? Do you hear my voice calling you? Perhaps we even hear him asking, "Why are you running? Do you not know that all is well for you in my providence?"

This week is the Diocese of Winona's Quo Vadis Days when all of the seminarians and many of the younger priests of the Diocese, with one of the senior priests, gather to speak to middle-school and high-school boys about vocations. Prayer, meals, conferences, Mass, sports, snacks, bonfires, Night Prayer - all of these are activities of these days. The focus of these days: discerning God's will. The center of these days: our Eucharistic Lord.

To be continued...