A Sunday Thought to Start the Week Off Right
Well, summer 2017's pretty much shot its wad. Sure, it's still "officially" summer until September 22nd. But most of us kissed our summer respite goodbye once Labor Day passed. The pace at work picks up; schools are in full swing now.
But as we've been discussing these last few weeks, every Sunday, the Lord's Day, can and should serve as, among other things, a bit of a respite from our daily labor. So let's continue that theme with something I picked up in my spiritual reading recently.
“I want you to make a greater effort to see the hand of God in everything that happens, and then to force or train yourself to rejoice in His holy will. For example, you want a fine day for some reason and it turns out wet. Don’t say, ‘Oh, hang it!’, but give our Lord a loving smile and say: ‘Thank You, my God, for this disappointment.’ This will help you to keep down impatience, irritability, etc., when people annoy you. Then when some hard trial is past, look back on it, see how you ought to have taken it, and resolve to act that way in the future.” (Fr. William Doyle, S.J., 1873-1917)
Now that we're back at our regular busy pattern at work, Sunday's a good time for this sort of effort. Ideally, we're always seeing God's hand in everything. But absorbed in our daily labor, it's not always easy to get perspective here. To meet the ongoing challenges and demands of our work, we attend to this and that, sometimes putting out a fire or two, sometimes straining to meet a looming deadline. Then the weekend comes and we're catching up on personal items we couldn't really attend to all week. For some of us who weren't home most of the week due to our work schedule, we might be shopping, doing home chores, shuttling kids to sports and other activities. And while some of this "busy stuff" unfortunately spills over into Sunday, we really should do our best to at least take some meaningful chunk of time, besides our attendance at Mass, to "get back with God." That's especially true if we haven't been all that "in touch" during the rest of the week.
I especially like Father Doyle's suggestion because we can look back over the past week and check in on what's gone on in this "supernatural" light. And, as we've seen many times in the past, seeing things as God sees them, in a supernatural light, ultimately unveils reality as God created it. The world in which we live will be unduly limited, even cramped, when we see things only in the way anyone without the knowledge and practice of the Catholic Faith might see them.
So in that spirit, thank you Lord for this especially challenging week following Labor Day. Besides the shortened week, which always forces me to jam more "must do" tasks into fewer days, I had to travel two days, further shortening my time in the office. Those bouts of anxiety that accompanied my not always successful efforts to stay on top of things did, in fact, result in some (as Father Doyle puts it) "impatience, irritability, etc." And I could have done better at keeping a lid on the anxiety and my impatience and irritability had I seen Your Hand in everything that happened. But spending these few moments assessing the events of the past week in this light, I understand better how I ought to have taken things. And by Your Grace, I resolve to act better in the future.
Help me, Lord, to recognize Your Hand in everything not only on Sunday, but every day.
Happy Sunday!
But as we've been discussing these last few weeks, every Sunday, the Lord's Day, can and should serve as, among other things, a bit of a respite from our daily labor. So let's continue that theme with something I picked up in my spiritual reading recently.
“I want you to make a greater effort to see the hand of God in everything that happens, and then to force or train yourself to rejoice in His holy will. For example, you want a fine day for some reason and it turns out wet. Don’t say, ‘Oh, hang it!’, but give our Lord a loving smile and say: ‘Thank You, my God, for this disappointment.’ This will help you to keep down impatience, irritability, etc., when people annoy you. Then when some hard trial is past, look back on it, see how you ought to have taken it, and resolve to act that way in the future.” (Fr. William Doyle, S.J., 1873-1917)
Now that we're back at our regular busy pattern at work, Sunday's a good time for this sort of effort. Ideally, we're always seeing God's hand in everything. But absorbed in our daily labor, it's not always easy to get perspective here. To meet the ongoing challenges and demands of our work, we attend to this and that, sometimes putting out a fire or two, sometimes straining to meet a looming deadline. Then the weekend comes and we're catching up on personal items we couldn't really attend to all week. For some of us who weren't home most of the week due to our work schedule, we might be shopping, doing home chores, shuttling kids to sports and other activities. And while some of this "busy stuff" unfortunately spills over into Sunday, we really should do our best to at least take some meaningful chunk of time, besides our attendance at Mass, to "get back with God." That's especially true if we haven't been all that "in touch" during the rest of the week.
I especially like Father Doyle's suggestion because we can look back over the past week and check in on what's gone on in this "supernatural" light. And, as we've seen many times in the past, seeing things as God sees them, in a supernatural light, ultimately unveils reality as God created it. The world in which we live will be unduly limited, even cramped, when we see things only in the way anyone without the knowledge and practice of the Catholic Faith might see them.
So in that spirit, thank you Lord for this especially challenging week following Labor Day. Besides the shortened week, which always forces me to jam more "must do" tasks into fewer days, I had to travel two days, further shortening my time in the office. Those bouts of anxiety that accompanied my not always successful efforts to stay on top of things did, in fact, result in some (as Father Doyle puts it) "impatience, irritability, etc." And I could have done better at keeping a lid on the anxiety and my impatience and irritability had I seen Your Hand in everything that happened. But spending these few moments assessing the events of the past week in this light, I understand better how I ought to have taken things. And by Your Grace, I resolve to act better in the future.
Help me, Lord, to recognize Your Hand in everything not only on Sunday, but every day.
Happy Sunday!
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