Becoming a Devout Soul

While I was reading "Black as Night", I came to a passage that, very appropriately, jumped off the page at me. Yes, it pretty much jumped off the page and hit me smack across the face. In the book, some friar novices are in the middle of a lesson with their superior. The superior says, "According to the saints, the vow of poverty involves the surrender of our time...St. Therese of Lisieux in particular believed 'a willingness to be interrupted' was necessary to the devout soul." Well, I can tell you all that I am certainly not a devout soul. What a struggle it is to finally get focused on something only to be interrupted. Take this book, for example. The human side of me wants nothing more than to sit down, uninterrupted, and finish this book! The other side of me that knows better, realizes that this is not possible (unless I stay up all night), but yet still I struggle every time I must get up to take care of something. It also never fails that when I finally can sit down and get a good internet connection so I can post, someone comes along and asks me some deep, philosophical question (like, how come you have to spray paint the furniture?) that requires me to stop my train of thought and come up with some sort of reasonable response.

I think that part of why I struggle with these interruptions is because I have a very hard time remembering things and focusing on one thing at a time (remember, I suffer terribly from momnesia!). Therefore, when I have to do a task that requires this focus, I know that if I am interrupted too many times, I might as well pack it in. I guess, though, that as we try to grow in holiness, that we are called to be detached even from the things that we need and want to do. It's like making a plan to go out and then being mad when it rains. If we are detached from all of our plans and all of the things that we would like to do, or even need to do, and allow ourselves to be totally led by the Holy Spirit, then an interruption would not even phase us. I think it even goes hand-in-hand with being at peace in our soul and living in the present moment. (How funny, just as I was trying to wrap this up the phone rang with none other than a telemarketer. God really does have a sense of humor. So, where was I going with this???) The more docile we allow our soul to be to the promptings of the Holy Spirit in the present moment, I suppose the more willing we will be to be interrupted and then, hopefully, the more devout we will become.

God Bless!