Part 1 Chapter 4
"The Value of Time"
It never ceases to amaze me how instinctively it seems that my husband can remain productive from rising until closing his eyes at the end of the day. You can probably guess from my admiration that I do not possess this natural quality. Perhaps it is the Sanguine in me, but I routinely seek some little amusement at the end of a busy day even if I am dog-tired just so that my entire day wasn't just work, work, work.
Thankfully, Monsignor is not suggesting that holiness and busy-ness are synonymous; he is not advocating becoming a workaholic as the path to perfection. Idleness is to be avoided because it is a break, not from work but from accomplishing the will of God in a constant and generous fashion (remember that is our definition of perfection in this reading). There is time when God wills our rest and our leisure. There is time when it is right for a mother to go outside and frolic in the sun with her children. The beauty of the "rule of life" referenced in the chapter, and expanded upon in the next chapter, is that those things can happen without sacrificing dinner on the table or clean clothes in the drawers--there is time for everything necessary.
Several years ago, my friend and I gathered our older daughters and some other middle and high school girls into a van and drove to Nashville, Tennessee. Grand Ole Opry? No, (not that we didn't try to fit that in during the planning) the motherhouse of the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecelia was our destination. We spent a beautiful day meeting the vocations director and touring the motherhouse, and while my friend and I were gifted with a couple of quiet hours in the chapel, the girls enjoyed Recreation Time with the sisters. It continues to be a source of inspiration that the sisters accomplish so much prayer time, study time, teaching time and time for household duties during the day and still manage a couple of hours during which they play board games, play volleyball or some other sport, or go for a good stretch of the legs.
Perhaps I can't "do everything", but I can do everything that God has called me to do.
(Tomorrow I will include a few resources on the rule of life, since it is the chapter's focus.)
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Perfection is accomplishing the will of God in a constant and generous fashion.
I tend to have also a problem in the evenings, when I am tired. It is easier to watch for God's will during the morning hours for me, and slip completely into TV shows, for example,that are not good for me, during the night. I wonder if other people have the same problem too and how they have addressed it in time, how in our weakest times of the day we can still adapt to God's will for us.
ReplyDeleteYes, my will is much weaker in the morning and later in the evening. Those are the time when I want to indulge in selfishness.
ReplyDeleteThis is an example of the value of having a written rule of life. If you allow TV watching from 9-10 in the evening, have evening prayers until 10:30 and then lights out, your TV watching is not unlimited. Having a rule of life keeps one from having to "figure out" what should be done at every moment. It allows us to rest in obedience.