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from Father Bede Jarrett, a Dominican priest from England:
With regard to the word we may be called upon to do, and each one of us has some special work to do for God, God made his plans for us before we came into the world at all - for the work is of primary importance, it comes first in God's thought, and we follow as instruments. When an architect is commissioned to build a house [prior to 2009 of course], he has to know first its destined use, its locality, and the weather conditions, etc. Every detail must be taken into consideration. Only then can he collect his materials and begin to work. The foundations are very slowly made, with pain and trouble and much work if the building is to endure...
God is the architect. He has made our souls a certain size and shape, to fit certain holes, so to speak. It is not for us to say that we are incapable, or unfitted for the work given to us. He has placed us in a certain position, and if he wants us to do a certain work, we shall do it. If he doesn't, we shan't. In any case, it is not for us to judge, but to obey his will. The doing of his will is not only the reason for all our Lord's life, but of our life, of all life. In its accomplishment lies the fullness of life.
"Now this is eternal life--that we may know thee." The will of God is made known to us through the interplay of our own interior impulses and desires, and our exterior circumstances.... Nothing is ever quite what we anticipated. There is the interplay of circumstances on our desires. It makes known to us what is God's will for us; and so we give up in our desires what does not fit in with God's plan for us, content to do as he wishes.
[copied from the Beyond Blue blog]
