Long ago, men and women practiced their faith with great courage and generosity. Hannah was an example. A thousand years before Christ, she was married with no children. Year after year she bore her shame until she could bear it no longer. She went to the temple and made a vow that if God would grant her a male child, she would give him to the Lord all the days of his life. In the temple there was a priest who overheard her, and he prayed for her intention as well. God heard their prayers. Hannah conceived and bore a son and had great joy with her husband. When she told her husband of her vow, how she must return the boy to the temple and leave him there, he acquiesced, saying “Do what you think best; wait until you have weaned him. Only may the LORD fulfill his word!” (1 Samuel 1:23). How great was their faith! How great their courage! How great their generosity!
Would you be willing to give up your first-born son to God? How many parents shrink back when their children consider priesthood or religious life? How many Catholics in the pews are stingy with their gifts of time, talent and treasure? How many priests in their rectories are too self-absorbed to hear confessions? How many religious are too lazy to come out from under the blankets of their comfortable routines?
Let us have faith! Let us be courageous like Hannah and her husband, with generosity! Let us offer our vows to the Lord, our God, and fulfill them!