Quote About Peace

I was cleaning out my Inbox, and noticed this quote that I've been holding onto. Instead of keeping it in email, I thought I would post it here. I'm not sure who the quote is from unfortunately.

Peace is not the absence of trouble. Peace is the presence of God.

White House Retreat

I went on my first White House retreat this past weekend. The White House is a Jesuit-run retreat facility in St. Louis. The retreat is a silent retreat based on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. For three days, I spent time in silent prayer, prayer services, mass, and spiritual talks. I loved it!

The facility is wonderful. It sits on the bluffs over the Mississippi River. Every day I watched barges move up and down the river. I saw bald eagle swooping overhead. I was able to walk in the brisk air every day. It was peaceful, restful, and great!

My life has a lot of noise in it; a constant stream of questions at work, email, news feeds, kids, etc. The quiet time on the retreat was wonderful. It took quite a while to settle down my mind, but once I did, I was able to focus on trying to listen to the Lord. The retreat gave me a sense of peace and gave me time to reflect on a number of things that I've been anxious about in my life.

I would highly recommend a retreat. It was exactly what I needed!

Integrating Christmas

This Sunday marks the start of Ordinary Time in the church. As the Christmas liturgical season wound down this week, I realized the challenge that is presented to us at Christmas.

In the secular world, Christmas is about gifts. We spend Advent preparing by buying and wrapping presents, cleaning out spaces in our homes for new things, singing carols, and generally getting ready for the big day. Then Christmas hits. We spend the day(s) traveling around visiting family and friends, getting gifts, and receiving gifts. Then, after all the celebrations, we have to find ways to integrate the gifts into our lives. So it is for us spiritually too.

We spend Advent trying to prepare for a wonderful gift from God. We pray more, reflect more, and receive the sacrament of Reconciliation. On Christmas, we try to understand the gift that God gives us: He sent his Son into our world to show us how to love! After Christmas, we have to find ways to integrate that gift into our lives.

As Catholics we must use the awesome gift we've been given and take Jesus into the world with us. Along with our new clothes and other gifts, we need to integrate Jesus into our lives and share Him with our family and friends.

That's the challenge of Christmas: to share the gift we've received with everyone around us!

Almost Wrecked Christmas

My regular prayer life includes the morning and night prayers from the Liturgy of the Hours and I've added daily mass. All through Advent, these prayer activities kept me tied to the liturgical season. They helped me stay expectantly hopeful to God.

I took time off between Christmas and New Year's. My schedule changed, and so did my prayer routine. We slept until our boys got us up; we went on family outings; and our normal routine was very different. It was wonderful! However, I wasn't praying.

Part way through last week, I had a down day. We had an issue at work, and I spent a few hours working from home helping to resolve the issue. I got a little depressed thinking about how my vacation was ending. This depression was a result of being away from God for too long.

I need my regular prayer to stay close to God. It keeps me connected to the liturgical seasons and to the Holy Spirit's influence in my life. Because of the hiatus from prayer, I missed out on the joyfulness conveyed by the church. I missed the celebration!

Fortunately, I realized that my spiritual tank was empty when I went to mass for the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God. It reminded me that I needed my regular prayer life and I needed to stay close to God. I was able to capture some of the joy the church conveys, and I'm hoping to carry it forward into the new year!