Too Young?

~ “Ah, Lord God!” I said,
“I do not know how to speak; I am too young.” 

But the Lord answered me,
Do not say, ‘I am too young.’
To whomever I send you, you shall go;
Whatever I command you, you shall speak.
Do not be afraid of them,
For I am with you to deliver you.

Then the Lord extended his hand and touched my mouth, saying to me, See, I place my words in your mouth!” Jeremiah 1: 4-8

One of my greatest joys each week as the Assistant Principal of St. Margaret of Scotland School is that I get to walk the streets of our Shaw neighborhood with our whole student body to celebrate Mass.  If there is one thing I hope for every soul, young or old, who enters and leaves our school, it is to know without a doubt that God created them out of love, that is abundant and eternal and beyond any inkling of our own grasping and understanding.  And to realize, within that love, their fullest expression of who God made them to be for this world and for eternity. 

Does this sound lofty? Or churchy? Or something?  Maybe… but who has human words for something so much greater than ourselves? 

But whatever it is… I feel this potential for all of us. 

At last Wednesday’s All School Mass, we heard Jeremiah tell God, “Ahh Lord God! I do not know how to speak, I am too young!”  After receiving the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity in communion, all 450 of us – students, faculty, and parents – took moments of complete stillness, to open our minds, hearts, and bodies to the Presence of God within us and between us –  to get in touch with the incredible thought that God knew us before we were born!  That’s a crazy thought, isn’t it?  And more than that – He loved us before we were born.  It really is mind-blowing.  And that, like Jeremiah, they (we) too can carry this communion with God out into the world to speak the words God has written on our hearts. Wouldn’t the world be an incredible place?

We are NOT too young. 

Throughout the year, we present an article in the bulletin each week on a variety of topics, written by a member of our Parish staff or ministries on a rotating basis.