How to Deal with the Chaos: Weekly Message for 05-28-2019

Dear Fellow Digital Pilgrim, Pax Christi:

As summer draws near, we are about to be bombarded by intense liturgical Feasts – Ascension, Visitation, Pentecost, Trinity, Corpus Christi, Sacred Heart… The combination of those intense liturgical celebrations with all of the other, non-liturgical celebrations going on these days, the graduations and the weddings and everything else, can make us feel exhausted and overwhelmed.

All the more reason to be intentional about taking time to be alone with the Lord.  There truly is nothing more important. Here’s how Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI put it when he visited Yonkers back in 2007:

What matters most is that you develop your personal relationship with God. That relationship is expressed in prayer.

And here is how Pope Francis put it in his Letter on holiness last year:

Finally, though it may seem obvious, we should remember that holiness consists in a habitual openness to the transcendent, expressed in prayer and adoration. The saints are distinguished by a spirit of prayer and a need for communion with God. They find an exclusive concern with this world to be narrow and stifling, and, amid their own concerns and commitments, they long for God, losing themselves in praise and contemplation of the Lord. I do not believe in holiness without prayer, even though that prayer need not be lengthy or involve intense emotions. (Gaudete et Exultate, 147)

At RCSpirituality, one of our constant goals is to give you resources that can help you keep growing in your prayer life.  We have retreat guides for many of the liturgical celebrations coming up, including Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, and the Sacred Heart.  And we have published multiple books about prayer (like A Quiet Place: How Daily Prayer Can Change Your Life and A Guide to Christian Meditation), as well as books with material that can help you prayer (like Seeking First the Kingdom: 30 Meditations on How to Love God with All Your Heart, Soul, Mind, and Strength, Summer Meditations, and The Better Part: A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer.)

But no book and no Retreat Guide can make the decision to pray, to take the time to be “alone with the one we know loves us”, as St. Teresa of Avila put it.  That decision can only be made by each one of us.

Before we get swept away by the tornado of activity that always strikes this time of year, let’s make that decision.  I assure you, we won’t regret it.

Yours sincerely in Christ, Fr John Bartunek, LC

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2 Comments
  1. So timely and encouraging! Thank you so much for this fraternal exhortation and encouragement! God keep all y’all, and give you delightful respite if and when you get some vacation time this summer yourselves!

  2. This was very helpful. I like that you stressed the prayer doesn’t have to be lengthy or “emotional” for it to be prayer. God bless you Father Bartunek.

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