Idle hands are the devil's playthings.
The aspirancy period for my brothers and I in diaconate
formation has officially ended. We now have the summer to prayerful discern if
we wish to formally declare to the Church that we want to be ordained. At the
end of the summer we will face our second scrutiny and the Church will determine
if they want to officially invite us to candidacy for ordainment. Please pray
for my brothers and me that the Holy Spirit guide each of us to the decision
God wants us to make. Pray also for our spiritual protection as the spiritual
attacks will increase the farther we travel down this road. You may believe
that it is all mumbo-jumbo but I can tell you for a fact that the devil is real
and he does not want good, ordained ministers.
Our summer assignment is to write a personal reflection on
one of the daily scripture readings. Sunday’s reflection is to be a two page
typed reflection. The goal of this exercise is to get us to start thinking as
preachers who will one day be prepared to give a daily homily. For you non-Catholics
a homily is akin to a pastor’s sermon except it is focused on the daily gospel
readings and how they are relevant to our modern lives. We are not permitted to
preach on whatever subject we choose. A good homilist is a godsend. A bad
homilist is a cure for insomnia or worse.
On top of this we also are to pray the Liturgy of the Hours
at least for the morning and evening periods. We are always encouraged to do
more. We were warned about getting behind and missing multiple days. We had the
same assignment last year, only with fewer days during the week required. I
managed to do a reflection for every day during the summer last year and post
them for others to read and respond to. Some of my brothers did likewise. We
got in a pretty good habit and it wasn’t overly difficult to keep up with the
assignment. This year it has been a bit tougher for me to keep my head above
water.
During the last month or so of formation my work schedule
started to ramp up. As soon as summer break hit so did my workload. I have been
assigned as the point person on a very important project and I have had some
late hours and increased travel. I have even had to do a few 24+ hour days. This
has made it very difficult to get on a schedule of reading, reflecting,
writing, and prayer. I am not worried that I will catch up but it is making me
very conscious of my spiritual life.
One of my favorite instructors always says that if the devil
can’t make you bad he will make you busy. I never fully grasped what that quote
meant until this past week. The devil actually loves two types of holy men –
the ones he can convince to walk away from their vocation and the ones he can
corrupt in their vocation. If he can’t corrupt you he will make you busy.
A busy man quickly uses the time he would normally spend in
prayer doing busy work. A busy man spends reflection time and time he normally spends
with the Lord doing busy work. Once the devil is successful in getting a man to
do busy work and stops him from his time of prayer and reflection he has
started to corrupt him. Then once he can make you busy he can make you bad. A
question you can ask any ordained man who has walked away from his vocation and
get the same answer every time is when did you stop praying? It is a common
thread for those who leave a religious life. The stronger the prayer life the
stronger the spiritual life.
There are times where I get to the end of the day and I
realize that I didn’t read the daily readings, I haven’t written my reflection,
and I haven’t prayed the LOTH. How did the day get away from me? Then I examine
my day. Did I eat today? Yes. Did I sleep? (most days) Yes. Did I watch TV or
play any video games? Yes there to. Did I engage in any unnecessary social
media or text messages? Of course I did. It becomes apparent very quickly that
I don’t really have a problem with being busy but I have a priority problem. I
must learn to reorder my day so that the big rocks go in the glass first. What
are the big rocks? Eat, sleep, family, prayer, and exercise. I must reorder my
life so that I touch each of those areas at least a little every single day.
The more I touch those areas the happier a person I will be. Putting in a
twenty hour day at the office never makes me happy. Reaching the line, “May the Lord bless
us, protect us from all evil, and bring us to everlasting life.” always fills me with happiness. Everything else in my day
is just filler.
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