Well, my yearly weekend of silence is over and I've been thrust head-long back into the real world. The retreat was wonderful, as usual, and chock-full of great things to ponder for quite some time.
I've been thinking for awhile about how busy I am doing things that take up time but which do not seem very productive to me, thus making it hard for me to accomplish things that I think are productive. This has been happening for quite some time now and it gets very frustrating day after day to not get done all those things on "my list".
During the retreat I had a chance to speak to Father about this and he said that he could relate to me; that even though we have different vocations, he has this same problem in his life. He suggested that the key is just to do whatever we can during the day, but to do it with love and not worry about the stuff that we just couldn't get to. "Every time you do something," he said, "tell Jesus that what you are doing you are doing for Him so that when you meet Him at your particular judgement and He asks you what you did for Him, you can say, 'Well, I drove you everywhere, I fed you, I cleaned your clothing...'" I like that. I just have to remember to do it!
In just the day that I've been home I've run across this same strain of thought a number of times in different things I've read. I'll take that as a sign that I'm on the right track. What peace it brings to remind myself that I'm not just doing things because they need to be done, I'm doing them all for Jesus. I guess deep down I always knew that, but making a statement about it throughout the day really does help.
Thank you, Lord, for a fruitful weekend and the wonderful priests who made it possible!
God Bless!
