By Emily Mendez
Connecting Faith and Life
My kids and I have enjoyed watching the Olympics this summer and cheering on Team USA. It is amazing how the athletes do such impressive performances in the biggest moment of their athletic career with the whole world watching. Just to qualify to compete at the Olympics is such an achievement! It is fun to share that moment of glory and see the culmination of all their hard work. As neat as it is to see the event and watch the medals ceremony, we are only seeing the end of the story. What we do not see are the countless hours spent training, preparing and practicing. We do not see the early mornings and late nights and long hours spent at the gym or pool or track and discipline in eating and sleeping well. We do not see how many times sacrifices were made and priorities were honored. We do not see all the work, but undoubtedly these athletes have put in the work!
How do people begin to accomplish a goal as lofty as becoming an Olympic athlete? Certainly, there is God-given natural talent involved, but after that they work for it. This model has many similarities to the spiritual life. Certainly, faith is a gift and God’s grace comes freely, but we can do our part to receive and use what is given. Take time to reflect; what are your spiritual goals? Do you want to live and love like Jesus? Do you want to finally break free from some sin in your life? Do you want to know God more through Sacred Scripture? Is there a sense of something missing in your spiritual life you need to explore more deeply? Do you want to finally feel like you have a handle on taking time to pray? Have you been meaning to reach out to do something good for the poor or needy? Are you a parent and want to pass the faith on to your children? Define the goals and then make a plan. The key to making a plan that sticks is routines. How can you add or subtract something to make a new routine that accomplishes the goal? Consider making your spiritual goals into a routine just like you do eating, sleeping, taking a shower, doing homework and practicing sports. Put it on your calendar or set a reminder on your phone. Small routines can make a powerful difference. Some ideas to consider: print out a Morning Offering Prayer and place it on your bedside table to pray before you get out of bed in the morning, get up 20 minutes earlier than normal and spend that time in prayer, read a short Bible story and pray with your kids every day before leaving for school, pray a decade of the rosary with your kids while driving to school or by yourself on your way to work, stop in at a Perpetual Adoration Chapel on your way home one day a week, read from the Bible when you wake up or before you go to bed, find an organization that needs volunteers to serve the poor or needy and make it a weekly or monthly thing.
In one of the most convicting homilies I have ever heard, the priest was talking about the busy world we live in and how we use our time, and he said that when it comes to being busy, we all have the same 24 hours in a day. People today say we are “busy,” but we choose how to spend our time. He said in our minds when we say, “I’m too busy. I don’t have time,” to do something we should stop and say instead, “It’s not important to me.” Then, if we are comfortable with saying that our priorities are in line. For instance, if we think, “I am too busy to pray every day,” we should replace that with, “It’s not important for me to pray every day.” His point was if it is important, we find the time, but too often we put our time into things that are not important and we neglect what is important. It is challenging but helpful! With the right priorities and routines, we can train like Olympians for the most important race: the race to heaven!