God only wants one thing from you- EVERYTHING.

We see the truth that God wants everything from us in the story of Abraham. God asks him to take his son Isaac, his only son whom he loves so dearly, and offer him back to God as a sacrifice. How much more could God ask for?

God wants even what is most precious to us. What is more precious to a parent than their child? Surely, a parent can identify with the story of Abraham. Children, like everything else, are not something owned or possessed by their parents. Some describe this reality as saying their children are "on loan" from God. They are a gift from God and they belong to God for his purpose and intentions.

What about our very lives - what does God want from us? You got it - everything! And whether we think about it or not, that is what a Catholic is doing every time she or he receives The Eucharist at Mass. When I receive the Eucharist at Mass, Jesus gives everything - all that he is, to me. I respond to his totally gift of self by saying, "Amen." In that "Amen" I am saying that I give all that I am back to Jesus for his purpose and intentions.

A guy and a girl are in a relationship. The girl is following Christ and the guy could care less about Jesus. What should the girl do knowing that everything, including her relationship with that boy that can be most precious thing in the world to her, belongs to God? She should pray and find out God's purpose and follow that. But how many girls in this situation do that?

I have prepared hundred's of couples for the sacrament of marriage. A majority of them have done serious damage to their relationship by willfully having sex outside of the covenant of marriage. I have never had one of these couples tell me that they sought God in prayer to find and follow his intentions for sexual expression in their relationship.

If we are not praying and seeking God's intentions and purposes for the relationships we are in and what we are doing with our time and life and words and thoughts and actions on earth, then how can we say we are giving God anything let alone everything?

Catholics who receive the Eucharist pledge to give God everything in their lives and live according to his purpose. The goal is to be directed by God in everything we do.

Blessed by the BEST,

+Fr. John