I continued with my shopping and was in the aisle with laundry soap. Looking for my regular brand, (because you know they must move the items around and nothing is ever in the same place) I see a young couple in a very earnest conversation. As I get closer, I hear the young man say, “Just call your mom, she will know what to get to remove red wine.” And I remember smiling and walking on.

As I am exiting the store, my shopping finished, a man and his two sons in soccer uniforms and carrying Gatorade move past me. The man says, “Let’s call mom when we get in the car and let her know that you won!”

I stopped pushing my cart and stood there for what seemed like minutes (but probably was only a few seconds.) In the past 90 minutes I have heard “call your mom” three times. I continued pushing the cart out to my car, loaded my groceries, and sat in the driver’s seat. I did not start my car. I pulled out my cell phone and called my mom.

My mom answers and I ask her, “What’s going on?”

She replies, “Not much, worried about your dad.”

“What’s wrong with dad?”

“He has COVID, and they called in a prescription for him, and I cannot get it.” My mom was unable to drive at this time because she had had a stroke a few months prior. “If it was at Wackerly Pharmacy, I would just go and get it… I know, I’m not supposed to  drive … but they are closed today, so they called the prescription to a different pharmacy.”

“Which pharmacy, Mom?”

“Oh, I don’t want to bother you.”

“Where is the prescription, Mom?”

“Oh, it’s Saturday and you finally have the day off, you don’t have to worry about it.”  She pauses. “It is at the Bay City Meijers, but don’t worry about it.”

“Mom, I am sitting in the parking lot at the Bay City Meijers right now. What else do you need?”

I overheard three random conversations that other people were having that Saturday morning, that had nothing to do with me, or did they?

Through the years, I have found that this is how God speaks to us. Through random situations, the ordinariness of everyday, and even through other people at the grocery store.

We often speak about how God is calling us. Calling us to be in a relationship with Him. Calling us to salvation. But have you ever thought about how that call is made? We know we are not going to receive an actual phone call from God, but He is going to speak to us.

When I think about God’s call and the times when I was discerning, I remember a feeling in my heart of incompleteness, that something was missing. Like I was searching for something more. And that is exactly what God’s call is. An invitation to something more. What is that more? It is a moving into relationship with God, or if we already have a relationship with Him, then a deepening or strengthening of that relationship.  

Why would we want this deeper relationship? For me, when I’m in tune with my relationship with God, when my prayer life is strong, I feel a greater purpose in my life. A feeling of completeness or feeling whole, and even greater than that feeling is the connection to others and to something much larger than myself.

With that connection comes a yearning in my heart to move outside and beyond my own needs. I feel compelled to action in service and charity. From these actions comes that sense of inner peace and joy. Even if everything is turned upside down and the world is throwing curve ball after curve ball, when I am in communion with God’s plan for me, when I’m not turning away from His call, the sense of calm in my life is present.

By virtue of our baptisms, God is calling each and every one of us. In Galatians 3:27

“For all of you who were baptized into Christ, have clothed yourself with Christ.”

Christ is now a part of our very being and as such we bring Christ to all we encounter. That is the reason our Catholic Church exists: to bring Christ to others. To evangelize. And for most of us Catholics this occurs in our ordinary daily lives. We are not ordained, nor vows taken into a religious order, we are the laity, the people in the pews, but we are still baptized into the same call.

Around the Diocese of Saginaw there are hundreds if not thousands of people living into their baptismal call and this is what this column is going to be about. The stories of people answering God’s call in their everyday lives. If you, or someone you know, wants to share how you have experienced or witnessed God’s call being answered, please let me know at answeringthecall@diosag.org and the story may appear in a future column.

Until then, remember that everyday God is calling you. Through your prayers, through your family and friends, and maybe even from strangers in the grocery store.