"What God wants is
not your ability,
but your availability."

While on a posting to Spain, Paul heard from one of his older brothers, Don. All the Murphy boys had remained close even though they were now working and studying in different parts of America or the wider world. Don had joined a Catholic group called “Miles Jesu”, one of what later came to be known as the “New Movements” in the Church. It was involved with short courses, known as “Cursillos in Christianity”, aimed at reviving and inspiring Catholics in their faith. Don’s interest and enthusiasm were infectious. Paul’s Navy service was due to finish shortly. When it did, he flew out to join Don in Phoenix, Arizona, and attended one of these courses.

Always devout, Paul now found something new and thrilling. The year was 1965 and many changes were in the air. The post-war generation was asking questions, and the Church was seeking to respond in new ways to new challenges. For many, over the next years, there would be confusion and uncertainty in what had seemed to be the rock-solid truths of the Catholic Faith. But the Cursillo retreat was not part of this: it was rooted in a traditional and authentic Catholicism that was intellectually and morally satisfying. As the retreat began, Paul Murphy met Father Alphonsus Duran, founder of Miles Jesu. Immediately, the priest recognised in the tall young man something special and significant. He was open and eager to give himself generously in service to God.

Later, when the retreat was over, the priest was aware that the young man had made a deep commitment to God in a new and important way. He felt called to ask him about what he wanted to do. Did he really seek only the will of God in all things? This is the sort of question to which it is easy to answer “yes” in a glib and even superficially pious way, because that is what seems expected. But Fr. Duran pursued the question. What if the will of God was that Paul should be a priest? He already knew that Paul did not want to be one, but Paul answered perfectly sincerely that he would do it.

“Do you like it?”
“No”
“Then why are you going to do it?”
“Because I am not going to do my will but the will of God.”

Fr. Duran then changed tack and suggested that God’s will might be that Paul should marry and raise a family. This time, Paul said that the idea certainly appealed. But was that his real motive in saying “yes” to the idea? Paul was solemn and emphatic in his response “I am not going to do my own will, but the will of God.”

The idea of doing sincerely what God wanted – and only what God wanted – was evidently the one thing that mattered to Paul Murphy. After some further discussion, Fr. Duran made another suggestion: that Paul continue with his plan of becoming an architect, but give his life over wholly to God. This would mean giving up personal possessions – taking a vow of poverty – and giving up the idea of marriage and a family, choosing instead to live a celibate life, serving God and his fellow-men with complete unselfishness, under a vow of obedience. This struck a chord deep inside Paul. It was what he knew that he really was called to do. Later he would say “I felt like everything fell into place”. He wept. He had found his life’s vocation.

This text excerpted from "A Man to Move Hearts - A Life of Paul Murphy, MJ" by Joanna Bogle and Stephen Ryan, MJ. Copies are available through Miles Jesu.