A Sunday Thought About Tuning Up at the End of August to Start the Week Off Right
It's time for a tune-up. As our children return to school and we finish consuming those last
bits of summer vacation, we leave summer and its peaceful languor behind. Work-lite will soon become real work. Get ready.
The highways will soon fill up to their full capacity, as will trains and buses, during the morning and evening commute. Life will begin chugging full steam ahead after the typical start and stop pattern of summer where colleagues, clients, and customers alternately announce they'll be "out of the office," or even "out of town and not able to pick up email consistently." (By the way, where is that mythical place where you really can't - as opposed to won't, or don't want to - pick up your email these days?
For those of us who may "lightened up" on our spiritual lives, this might the time to gear up. We're not talking about missing Mass on Sunday because you're on vacation. No Catholic worth his stripes buys into that lazy (and unholy) practice. It's more the slackening off from your usual alertness and discipline. For example, breaking typical work routines by taking vacation and/or some extra days off may have taken you off your usual schedule. Maybe you wake up later and skip your morning routine - you know, the one that makes time for prayers, spiritual reading, doctrinal study, your daily rosary, etc. Displacing the timing of those moving parts that drive your daily physical, mental and spiritual mechanics maybe throws you off stride.
But no worries. As you get back to your usual plan for the day, remember that your Creator's Plan hasn't changed a whit, summer or no summer. He was happy to have you enjoy your time away from work and maybe away from home during the summer. After all He created this world, and, as Genesis tells us, it was good. But while this world was made only for us, we were not made only for this world. We were made to know, love, and serve God in this world and enjoy eternal happiness with Him in the next.
So if "work-lite" was accompanied by "Catholic-lite" this summer, just recall your ultimate purpose and destiny. With everyone back to work soon, you'll be meeting the increasing demands of bosses, colleagues, and customers. Now's a good time to tune your daily spiritual discipline. A good way to start might be to turn to Him Who never takes a vacation from sustaining His Creation every moment of every day. Just use the words taught to us by His Son:
Say it slowly and mean it, maybe even like you're saying it for the first time. It's a great way to tune up you spiritual life now or any other time.
The highways will soon fill up to their full capacity, as will trains and buses, during the morning and evening commute. Life will begin chugging full steam ahead after the typical start and stop pattern of summer where colleagues, clients, and customers alternately announce they'll be "out of the office," or even "out of town and not able to pick up email consistently." (By the way, where is that mythical place where you really can't - as opposed to won't, or don't want to - pick up your email these days?
For those of us who may "lightened up" on our spiritual lives, this might the time to gear up. We're not talking about missing Mass on Sunday because you're on vacation. No Catholic worth his stripes buys into that lazy (and unholy) practice. It's more the slackening off from your usual alertness and discipline. For example, breaking typical work routines by taking vacation and/or some extra days off may have taken you off your usual schedule. Maybe you wake up later and skip your morning routine - you know, the one that makes time for prayers, spiritual reading, doctrinal study, your daily rosary, etc. Displacing the timing of those moving parts that drive your daily physical, mental and spiritual mechanics maybe throws you off stride.
But no worries. As you get back to your usual plan for the day, remember that your Creator's Plan hasn't changed a whit, summer or no summer. He was happy to have you enjoy your time away from work and maybe away from home during the summer. After all He created this world, and, as Genesis tells us, it was good. But while this world was made only for us, we were not made only for this world. We were made to know, love, and serve God in this world and enjoy eternal happiness with Him in the next.
So if "work-lite" was accompanied by "Catholic-lite" this summer, just recall your ultimate purpose and destiny. With everyone back to work soon, you'll be meeting the increasing demands of bosses, colleagues, and customers. Now's a good time to tune your daily spiritual discipline. A good way to start might be to turn to Him Who never takes a vacation from sustaining His Creation every moment of every day. Just use the words taught to us by His Son:
Our Father Who art in Heaven
Hallowed be Thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done
On earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our trespasses
As we forgive those who trespass against us
And lead us not into temptation
But deliver us from evil. Amen
Say it slowly and mean it, maybe even like you're saying it for the first time. It's a great way to tune up you spiritual life now or any other time.
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