Pastoral Message – November 5, 2023
The night of November 4th will contain an extra hour. Daylight Saving time ends on November 5th. I, for one, love having that extra hour! Even though I will probably end up spending the hour sleeping, just the thought that I get more time makes me happy.
This gets me thinking of our usual 24-hour day. It’s amazing to see how some people seem to have time to do a lot of things, while I often feel that I don’t have enough time to do the things I want to do. The fact is that all of us have the same amount of time: 24 hours a day. How we use those hours, along with the number of obligations we must attend to, determines the amount of available time we have.
I have read an inordinate number of books on time management. They all have useful ideas, but in the end it seems to boil down to the same basic thing: arrange your priorities, separate your activities according to your priorities, and fill your available time in a way that will address your priorities.
Notice how the word “priorities” keeps coming up. It seems to me that a productive day should include a healthy balance of these things, in no particular order: attention to our family; quality prayer time; exercise; work, according to the duties of our state in life; some act of kindness or service for others; and at least some activity that is fun for us. The nights, of course, are for renewing sleep. Did I leave anything out? If so, please let me know.
Assuming that we give ourselves eight hours for sleep, each of us receives the gift of 960 minutes of available time each day. What a great gift! Considering the example of Jesus Christ, who changed the world in approximately 3 years of public ministry, we have the tremendous opportunity, and responsibility, of doing good things with those 960 minutes.
People with more wisdom than I speak and write about the importance of living in the present moment. Recognizing that this moment, right now, is a gift (literally a “present”) can inspire us to be grateful for it and to use it well. I am honored that you are using this moment to read my words!
Together let’s try more and more to value the series of present moments that make up each day, and to bring grace to our lives and to our world, one minute at a time.
Fr. Philip
