First Reading I Samuel 3:1-10, 19-20 Gospel Mark 1:29-39

Faithful to her promise, Hannah brought the baby Samuel to be reared at the shrine of Shiloh. Today’s beautiful story takes place when Samuel is a boy. He is awakened at night by a voice calling him three different times. Each time, he goes to the priest Eli who states that he did not call Samuel. The third time, Eli understands that it is the Lord who is calling Samuel. He tells Samuel to answer, “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.” This is the call of Samuel to be a prophet, or spokesman, for the Lord. Our faith teaches us that God is not too busy for us. He knows each of us intimately and personally. He calls each one of us to be his special person. Each of us has a personal call from God to serve him in a unique way. Unfortunately, our call is not always clear to us. We must reflect and pray and discern what he wants of us. The first step is to be open to his call: to desire to do what he wants of us, rather than what we ourselves think we’d like to do. We must always answer, like Samuel, “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.”