So, getting back from the Senior Retreat this weekend I came away with a lot of somethings to think about. There is one message I want to pass on to all of you though, and that is to be intentional.
On retreat this was put in the context of graduation (sorry seniors!) and spending these last few months intentionally so that no time is wasted. This is important year-round though, for being intentional means making the best use of time. That translates to single-tasking at dinner and putting away the phones or homework in order to focus on the delicious food you’re eating and the wonderful people who are dining with you. It means paying attention in class and doing homework, because part of college is class and even though this is really hard sometimes (especially for those of us with senioritis) it is a reason for being here. And in terms of God, maybe just saying God this time is for you because I care about you.
Part of this stems from the understanding of desire I’ve picked up from the Jesuits over the past four years: that God sometimes uses our deepest desires to speak to us, to call us to Him and to guide us. All of this gets lost in the schoolwork and meetings and jobs and sometimes my deepest desire is to sleep and not to read that novel for English class, but even that desire may be God (and my body) telling me to take better care of myself.
The takeaway of all this is to be intentional this Lent and dive into life. See where your desires take you and where you decide to devote your time. Mumford and Sons sings “where you invest your love, you invest your life.” Spend sometime this Lent just seeing where you invest yourself and where God fits into all of it and readjust if you need to.
--Katie R.
(Also, a quote by Thomas Merton that I think fits well here but that I couldn’t quite figure out how to mention explicitly in the reflection.)
My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road
though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
- Thomas Merton
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