After a year of being in a kind of spiritual funk where service to the Lord seemed so much more of a burden and my "yes" to the Lord seemed more and more difficult, I've finally begun to find my way through it. I had spent a weekend thinking about the days when piety came easily and didn't seem to be so hard, I remembered that at the time, I had been praying the prayers of St. Bridget. I decided to make a commitment to begin praying them again, both the one year and the twelve year set. Yesterday, I really, really did not feel like going to my Legion of Mary meeting. However, I decided to say yes and go anyway. I ended up praying the Rosary twice that day, which was more than I had said it in a while.
Over the last few weeks, I have gotten out of the habit of going to daily Mass but I made a conscious decision to put everything else aside and go. I also took some advise given to me by my mother and prayed on the way to Mass that the Lord would show me the ONE thing that I could do this week to improve in my faith life. As I sat in the pew waiting for Mass to begin, I told the Lord to please make it clear because I am not good at picking up on subtle hints.
I needn't have worried. I chose the right day to come to Mass, because it's the Feast of the Annunciation. The theme I heard repeated over and over and over again was, "Say YES!" I knew what God was telling me. I don't know what He has planned, and I don't know what will come of today's talk, but I do know that the one thing I need to do to improve my spiritual life is to say yes instead of no. Show up to the meeting even though I don't feel like it. Make the effort to be at Mass even though I feel like I don't have time. It's something I know from experience - the less I feel like being some place, the less I feel like doing something God has asked me to do, the more that I need to do it.
The reality about holiness is that it's a daily decision to say "yes" to whatever the Lord asks of us, just as Mary did. That's it. Say "yes" and let the Lord take care of the rest. He didn't ask Mary to say "yes" and then expect her to do a whole lot to make it happen. Her "yes" was all He needed to get the work done. So, this week, let's all do the one thing we can do to improve this week: Say "yes" to whatever God may ask of you.
Over the last few weeks, I have gotten out of the habit of going to daily Mass but I made a conscious decision to put everything else aside and go. I also took some advise given to me by my mother and prayed on the way to Mass that the Lord would show me the ONE thing that I could do this week to improve in my faith life. As I sat in the pew waiting for Mass to begin, I told the Lord to please make it clear because I am not good at picking up on subtle hints.
I needn't have worried. I chose the right day to come to Mass, because it's the Feast of the Annunciation. The theme I heard repeated over and over and over again was, "Say YES!" I knew what God was telling me. I don't know what He has planned, and I don't know what will come of today's talk, but I do know that the one thing I need to do to improve my spiritual life is to say yes instead of no. Show up to the meeting even though I don't feel like it. Make the effort to be at Mass even though I feel like I don't have time. It's something I know from experience - the less I feel like being some place, the less I feel like doing something God has asked me to do, the more that I need to do it.
The reality about holiness is that it's a daily decision to say "yes" to whatever the Lord asks of us, just as Mary did. That's it. Say "yes" and let the Lord take care of the rest. He didn't ask Mary to say "yes" and then expect her to do a whole lot to make it happen. Her "yes" was all He needed to get the work done. So, this week, let's all do the one thing we can do to improve this week: Say "yes" to whatever God may ask of you.
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