Urgency vs. Patience

My mom often says to me, “Have a sense of urgency.”  Hurry up.  Things won’t get done on time if you sit around lollygagging your time away.  In a way, this is an extension of what my grandmother would tell her:  “Induljatok!” – Hungarian for “Get going!”

I have struggled with having this sense of urgency my whole life.  Part of it is probably genetic from both sides.  In my family, we do things very deliberately, and very accurately.  There’s probably a measure of OCD thrown into the mix.  My parents had to be very precise in their work, so it was a habit that both my brother and I picked up quite easily.

When we went to New England over Labor Day weekend, our tour director advised us that in one town, they had no sense of urgency, so ask for your lunch check right when you receive your food.  I told my mom, this is the town for me.

There are times when it is good to have a sense of urgency:  when you are facing a deadline, when you have an important appointment, or when there is some sort of an emergency.  There are also times when it is more advisable to take your time.  Journeys of faith usually fall into the latter category.  I make sure to mention to people who want to go through the RCIA program that this is their journey.  It goes at each person’s own pace.  The important thing is to discern how God is impacting their life at this point in their life.  What is He calling them to do at this moment?  What is His will for them where they are right now?

Perhaps during hectic times of our lives, it would be beneficial to slow down, even stop for a moment, and ask ourselves, what does God want of me at this moment?  How would He want me to act or react in this situation?  What would Jesus do in this situation?  And, at times when things are not moving along as quickly as we might like, we can remember that patience is a skill that perhaps we need to develop further.

Obedience to God's Will

This year, among the many changes that have taken place in our parish, Fr. Andrzej asked me to take over RCIA.  When he first suggested this, I was a little uncomfortable with the idea.  I am a cradle Catholic.  What do I know about conversion?  Yes, I have a teaching background, but I mostly worked with lower grades, never adults.  Each age-level is its own beast and comes with its own challenges.  I spent a long time coming to terms with the idea of leading a group of adults through arguably one of the most transformative experiences of their lives, but eventually I accepted the task before me, even if it still makes me a little nervous.  This is what God’s plan for me is right now.  He wants to work through me and strengthen me in my faith through this experience.

This past Tuesday evening, the incoming RCIA participants had the opportunity to meet with Fr. Joshua, Deacon George, and Deacon John.  In the course of the conversation, the topic of Mary came up.  Fr. Joshua told those present that we can come to understand Jesus better through Mary.  Deacon John mentioned that the last recorded words we have from Mary in the Bible are at the Wedding at Cana when Jesus performed his first miracle, changing the water into wine.  Mary said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you” (John 2:5).

When Deacon John mentioned the last recorded words of Mary, it got me thinking about the other times we hear Mary’s words directly quoted in scripture.  Each of the four times illustrate Mary’s own journey toward total obedience to God’s will.

First, when the angel Gabriel tells Mary she is to be the mother of God, she says, “How can this be…?”  (Luke 1:34).  Even Mary had her moments of disbelief and doubt.  She comes to accept God’s will for her very quickly however because just four verses later, in Luke 1:38 she says, “May it be done to me according to your [the angel Gabriel’s] word.”  When Mary goes to visit Elizabeth, she proclaims the Magnificat in praise and thanksgiving for God’s care for her.  And finally, at the Wedding at Cana, Mary shows the utmost trust in God in the person of Jesus when she tells the servants to “Do whatever he tells you.” 

Mary’s journey is perhaps best summarized as going through four stages, which we see in her own words:  skepticism, acceptance, praise and thanksgiving, and obedience.  We can take comfort from the fact that even our Blessed Mother experienced these human emotions and showed us how to be perfectly obedient to God’s will.

Keep the Plates Spinning

My mantra this week has been “Keep the plates spinning.”  When I was growing up, we had a VHS compilation of segments from “The Ed Sullivan Show” and in it, there was a plate-spinning act.  The idea was to see how many plates one could keep spinning at the same time. 

Plate-spinning was a one-person act, which upped the suspense level.  Could one person do it all alone?  It made for great entertainment, because of the potential for things to go wrong.  But what if there were more people involved?  What if, instead of just one person, there were multiple people, each trying to make sure all the plates kept spinning?  That could be just as disastrous.

Sometimes, there seems to be so much going on, it is a struggle to keep just a few plates spinning.  Other times, it is easier.  Sometimes the plates are on a counter or table with little risk of falling and shattering.  Other times the plates are spinning on sticks and the worst could happen at any moment.

The point is, when organizations are run effectively and efficiently, each person is responsible for their set of plates and their set of plates alone.  There is division of duties so that no one person has too many plates.  It makes a seemingly insurmountable task manageable.

I feel like we are in the middle of a plate-spinning act at St. Ambrose right now.  At least, that’s how it has felt on the administrative side of the parish.  There are so many programs to keep going, and at the moment our chief plate-spinner, Fr. Andrzej, has stepped away from the table.  It now falls to those of us who remain to “pick up the slack” as it were.

The important thing to realize is that, at the very core, we are invested in keeping our Church alive, even in the face of adversity.  There may be some fumbles and some slips along the way, but we will come out the other side of this difficult time.  The hope is that we come out stronger.  We just have to rely on one another a little bit more and be willing to help in whatever way we can.  We know that we can always rely on God’s help to resolve our difficulties.  It may not be in the way we want or expect, but He always listens and answers our prayers.

Finding Joy in Simple Things

I just got back from a weeklong trip to New England.  It was good to get away for a while, and nice to spend time traveling with my mom.  We went on a bus tour around all five New England states.  We had traveled with this tour company last year as well, and both times my dad joked that I would probably be the youngest person on the tour.  (I wasn’t the youngest either time, by the way.)

Half the fun of a bus tour is getting to know those with whom you are traveling.  This year, we met an older couple and their adult son who seemed to have an intellectual disability.  I’ll call him “Ryan” here.  In my years working in special education, I have enjoyed working with such individuals because they find so much joy in the simple things of life.

Ryan soaked up all the experiences on the tour.  To him, everything was “awesome!”  From visiting Faneuil Hall in Boston, to driving past the grand estates of the Breakers in Rhode Island, to cruising the harbor and eating lobster in Maine, he loved every minute. 

People like Ryan who are able to find joy in pretty much anything inspire me.  Their zest for life is contagious.  It makes me realize how much in my life I should thank God for.  I have written before about the importance of being child-like.  People like Ryan never really lose their child-like wonder and fascination with the world.  Rather than regarding this as an aspect of their disability, one might consider it their super power.