From the sermon of St. Augustine, ” I tell you again and again, my brethren, that in the Lord’s garden are to be found not only the roses of the martyrs. In it there are also the lilies of the virgins, the ivy of wedded couples, and the violets of widows. On no account may any class of people despair, thinking that God has not called them. Christ sufferred for all. What the Scriptures say of him is true: He desires all men to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth.
“In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. ” Luke 6:12
Exhausted and Exhilarated was how I describe myself on Monday morning after a weekend where we, as a parish community, shared our call to become Eucharistic People and it is the way I felt after the following Sunday’s Masses the following week as we celebrated the Sacrament of Anointing and Baptism at the 10:00 a.m., the 12:30 p.m. Mass and then a final Baptism in the early afternoon after the Mass. What a true and wonderful blessing to be exhausted and exhilarated.
God shows us so many wonderful blessings in our lives and yet we often miss them until they hit us in the forehead like a 2×4.
Gratitude and thanksgiving are so very important in our lives. God made each of us to be thankful and express this thankfulness in praise and worship, in other words in making our lives centered on prayer. It is where we pause to take time to honor what is good and holy in our lives, it is a time were we also see God’s face in the difficulty and hurts surrounding us in moments of struggle. In both cases the taking of time allows our hearts to be open to others who will both celebrate with us and will also embrace us with comfort and love.
The gratitude and thanksgiving of being exhausted after a long day of interaction, and for an introvert the is doubly true, can darken the moment. I can remember my very first Christmas as a priest when on Christmas afternoon, as I dropped onto the bed in true exhaustion, how at rest my whole body began to shake. I was exhausted beyond belief. Or the first time, after a weekend as the presenting priest for Worldwide Marriage Encounter, how I got home and didn’t want to interact with any one and just wanted to be alone. And I could name a thousand other times….but…what was also most clear to me at that moment was in prayer, sitting down to the the Liturgy of the Hours, or in praying the Rosary, how I began to recall and give thanks for what had just happened and how in prayer I began to look forward again, not in exhaustion but the the exhilarating hopefulness of the next time, the future of blessing and the grace shared and given by the presence of God in the holy and broken people our Church is called to serve.
It is the exhausted I feel after spending time praying with a family in the hospital or in preparing and living through the time after the death of a loved one. It is the exhausted of listening to and sharing stories of pain and suffering with couples and individuals in marriages that are struggling or those in the single state having difficult times. But the exhilaration is also present when entering into prayer where we understand we are not alone and where a small but real ray of hope breaks into the darkness of suffering and pain.
I can only imagine this is what many parents feel on a daily basis as they live the exhausted and exhilarated life of blessings. It is the feelings we all have in our human experience of living a full life. Living a life of prayer is the opening of our life to grace and the future of gratitude and hope.
Three little suggestions
Make a gratitude journal where each night (or morning) you write one or two things you are grateful for or blessing you received that day.
Take time to thank God for these blessings and thank other people, like a spouse, parent, sibling, friend, co-worker or stranger…it will do the spirit good and is a wonderful form of prayer.
Lastly, read a good Catholic book on joy and gratitude….you might start with “A Moment’s Pause for Gratitude: Enrich Your Life with a Focus on Gratitude” by Kevin Carroll
God bless
Fr. Mark
“Behold the Lamb of God, Behold God Himself! Adore Him!.” “If you have this Eucharistic spirit, if your thoughts are tuned continually toward the Eucharist, the presence of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament will never leave you.” St. Peter Julian Eymard