The call - and doing too much.

When Our Lord spoke to St. Francis he told him, "Rebuild my Church."  Francis took it literally, and began to rebuild local churches which had fallen into ruin.  It was a good work and gave Francis something to do during his initial conversion process.  (I'm being purposely simple here.)

St. John of the Cross uses the example from the life of St. Francis to show how easily inspirations and locutions can be misunderstood or even fail in so far as we interpret them according to our own experience, understanding: "what is received is received according to the mode of the receiver."

So we get mixed up sometimes.

Sometimes we even take on too much, or try to do too much.  A meditation from Magnificat a few days ago, by an unknown writer to Traces magazine brought that point home for me:

Within Christ's embrace, which gives me incredible strength, I have been able to see all my weaknesses clearly.

I have seen  the incumbent risk to busying ourselves doing things for Christ - in good faith - only to discover that we have lost ourselves because we never had time for him. - Letter to editor of Traces magazine. 

We need to be careful.  Remember St. Francis always retired for prayer and solitude, and though poor, he never neglected the duties of his state in life, the times of prayer, the obligation of Mass, and so on.

I think some have lost the grace of God, the initial fervor of their conversion by doing too much and loosing themselves in their work ...

The seed sown among thorns is the one who hears the word, but then worldly anxiety and the lure of riches choke the word and it bears no fruit. - Matthew 13:22