Success in Ministry: A Product of God’s Mercy
My God, the progress of the evangelical undertakings, orders, industries, and establishments, … will be the products and manifestation of your mercy. (OOCC, X, p. 309; STA, 346)
St. Vincent Pallotti, as a minister of evangelization, was convinced that the evangelizing ministry he was involved in was not his own personal undertaking. Though there was a personal choice on his part to be engaged wholeheartedly in the ministry, the mandate for the mission and graces needed for its success came from God. Thus, for St. Vincent, both the ministry he was involved in and the success of that ministry were nothing else but products of God’s mercy. Therefore, he attributed all the progress in his evangelical undertakings and all other activities associated with the success to God’s merciful dealings with him. For he knew that unless God manifested his mercy towards him and blessed what he had begun, there would be no progress and success. Such a perception about his ministry made St. Vincent humble and dependent on God. For he knew that with God’s mercy to guide him in his ministry, nothing would go wrong. Even if something went wrong, he was certain that God’s mercy would not let him down. With this trust-filled attitude, he joyfully carried on the ministry with which God had entrusted him.
Do I consider my apostolate a product of God’s mercy? Do I attribute the success in my ministry to the mercy of God or to my own efforts? Am I humble and dependent on God in accomplishing my ministry? Am I discouraged if and when something goes wrong with my ministry?
Yet I consider life of no importance to me, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to bear witness to the gospel of God’s grace. (Acts. 20: 24)