The possibility that I might have a vocation as a priest first surfaced in eighth grade. By my senior year, however, I was too busy to think much about the priesthood. After three years on the "meat squad," I had finally made the real football team. Basketball looked good too, but I opted instead to focus on track in the hope of maybe joining my brother Jim at Marquette University where he was a track standout. Still, the tug toward priesthood persisted.

Driving home from Mass one Sunday in May, Jim unexpectedly pulled over, stopped, and asked, "Are you pretty sure you want to be a Jesuit?" When I nodded he said, "The glamour of college athletics isn't all it's cracked up to be. If you know what you want to do, do it."

I entered the novitiate on August 17, 1955. Jim helped nudge me to the vocation my heart knew was mine.

The Holy Spirit calls all Catholics to serve the Church in some way. This is especially true during the Great Jubilee 2000 as the pope asks each of us to determine our part in creating a better, more just world.

Our first job is to listen, pray, reflect, and discern what we are called to do according to the vocation we have received. Next, we must take action. Merely hoping for a better world won't create one any more than dreaming about running can create a track star. Such things, as the saying goes, require 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.

Please know that your generosity and compassion inspire the Jesuits of the Upper Midwest and Great Plains, making it possible for us to do our part to build a better world. We are grateful and remember you daily in our prayers and Masses.