Our Men’s Prayer group is using Matthew’s Kelly’s Best Lent Ever as a daily prayer guide this Lent. I thought that today’s message is very much on-point to a question I often receive from parishioners: “What is it that God’s wants of me in my life?”

God created us, and he placed within you the seed of the-best-version-of-yourself. And it’s not something that’s being manufactured along the way. It’s being drawn out of you. The Latin verb educare is the word for education, and it means “to draw out”. And so, the very best teachers, the very best mentors, the very best coaches, the very best leaders—what do they do? They draw out the-best-version-of-ourselves. They draw it out of us. They don’t put it into us, they don’t impose it upon us; they draw it out. They draw it out with questions, they draw it out with example, they draw it out with stories, they draw it out—they draw it out of us. And so, that very best-version-of-yourself is in there. All God’s trying to do is to animate it, to bring it to life, to draw it out of you.

People will say to me, “I don’t know what God wants me to do.” He wants you to become the-best-version-of-yourself. Other than that, virtue’s a great path, because you can’t become more patient and not become a-better-version-of-yourself. You can’t become more honest and not become a-better-version-of-yourself. You can’t become more courageous, more persevering—pick any virtue you like—you can’t grow in virtue and not take one step closer to God, and one step closer to a-better-version-of-yourself. Because the-best-version-of-ourselves is constantly celebrating virtue, and the-best-version-of-ourselves is constantly creating Holy Moments.

Matthew Kelly, from transcript of Best Lent Ever 2019, March 20th message