Pearls of Peace

Because I took Summer classes, I welcomed the new school year with some reluctance due to the impending amount of homework that was sure to follow the shorter vacation I enjoyed.  Thankfully, my professors are nice and arranged for the first two weeks of school to be relatively light in terms of assignments, but the honeymoon was soon over.  Swamped with assignments and feeling the anxiety of the moment, I forgot about what is truly most important: giving my all for His glorification and being diligent at my studies not for my own sake, wants, or desires, but as a prayer to bring Him glory.

During September, I kept pondering the saints' advice during times of unusual busyness:

• St. Paul: Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. {cf. Rom. 12:2}

• St. Francis de Sales: "Everyone of us needs half an hour of prayer each day, except when we are busy - then we need an hour."

• Mother Teresa: "If you're too busy to pray, you're too busy."

I'm pretty sure I fell into the category of which Mother Teresa speaks, but was not at all abiding by the wisdom that St. Francis offers.  As for St. Paul, when my Bible Study leader reminded me of this passage from Sacred Scripture, I'm pretty sure it was God hitting me with a 2x4.

One afternoon in the middle of September, I found myself with a few hours to spare {a gift, if you will, from a professor who let us out of her class two hours early} and decided to make use of the time by driving to the nearby almost-perpetual adoration chapel.  That next hour spent in the presence of Our Eucharistic Lord was easily the highlight of my week.

This little experience reminded me that a relationship is between two people.  And that thought reminded me of a way I once heard someone describe the rosary...

It can seem a repetitive prayer, but instead it is like two sweethearts who many times say to one another the words: "I love you."

 This book features pictures of statues, paintings, and the actual places of Jesus' time on Earth.  Scripture passages walk you through each Hail Mary, decade after decade, with the option of instead simply having a meditation before each Our Father.  It is a beautiful book; I take it with me to a Chapel, pray in my home, or even bring it on a walk!  I find it particularly helpful to visualize the places as I meditate on the mysteries {clearly, I tend toward the Ignatian prayer style}.

My personality tends toward perfection in studies, but often forgetting to still set the appropriate time aside for prayer.  I tend to think that if I spend the next hour in prayer, that'll kill an hour of study time.

Do you feel the same way?

It's a lie.

I believe that when one spends the time with Our Lord, their time spent doing other things is far more productive than if they never had the quality time with Jesus.

As important as it is to dedicate the proper time to our studies and to be excellent in our work, our relationship with Christ is far more important.  My current vocation is to be a good student; some of the fruits of my prayers are the grades I receive on my assignments after offering my work as a prayer before I begin.  I must frequently remind myself that time spent in prayer is just as productive and necessary {if not more so} as time spent studying.