{"id":59945,"date":"2011-07-14T02:17:39","date_gmt":"2011-07-14T02:17:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thesmokingpriest\/?p=59945"},"modified":"2011-07-14T02:17:39","modified_gmt":"2011-07-14T02:17:39","slug":"summer-time-and-enjoying-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thesmokingpriest\/2011\/07\/summer-time-and-enjoying-life.html","title":{"rendered":"Summer Time and Enjoying Life"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">During my years in Spain and Mexico, it would be inevitable that interesting conversations with either Spaniards or Mexicans would take place regarding the differences between their countries and ours.\u00a0 One man put it bluntly: \u201cLook, the difference between us and you is that we work in order to live, and you live in order to work.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">As I wrote in my book <strong><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fatherjames.org\" target=\"_blank\">Get Serious! A Survival Guide for Serious Catholics<\/a>, <\/em><\/strong>the root of America\u2019s extreme activity is a profound restlessness rooted in troubled consciences and lives that have lost the sense of what it means to be a creature of God.\u00a0 This frantic pace of life is being put to sleep with sex, drugs, alcohol, excessive entertainment and frantic work schedules.\u00a0 Most people equate true leisure to laziness and irresponsibility.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">In ancient Athens, a man noticed the great storyteller Aesop playing childish games with some little boys.\u00a0 He laughed and jeered at Aesop, asking him why he wasted his time in such frivolous activity.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">Aesop responded by picking up a bow, loosening its string, and placing it on the ground. Then he said to the critical Athenian, &#8220;Now, answer the riddle, if you can. Tell us what the unstrung bow implies.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">The man looked at it for several moments but had no idea what point Aesop was trying to make. Aesop explained, &#8220;If you keep a bow always bent, it will break eventually; but if you let it go slack, it will be more fit for use when you want it.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">During one of my recent summer visits to my parents\u2019 home who now live in Binghamton, NY, we were all playing a favorite card game on the back patio one Sunday afternoon.\u00a0 All of a sudden a neighbor began to mow his lawn with a very loud lawnmower.\u00a0 The noise of the lawnmower pierced the silence of the Sabbath.\u00a0 Modern man needs long moments of silence.\u00a0 Modern man needs a day without machines and gadgets.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">\u201cTo avoid silence, we blindly grasp diversion, distraction.\u00a0 As an effect of all this, disintegration is produced within us.\u00a0 This ends up by giving birth to the feeling of aloneness, alienation, sadness and anxiety.\u00a0 This is the tragedy of the people of our day. Without a doubt, the periodic cultivation of silence, solitude and contemplation are more necessary, religiously and psychologically, than ever before.\u00a0 Our interiority is assaulted and battered by speed, noise and frenzy; we are at the same time, our own victim and executioner; and we end up feeling insecure and unhappy\u201d ( Ignacio Larra\u00f1aga,\u00a0 Sensing Your Hidden Presence, p. 187).<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">When a people no longer understand true leisure, they no longer know how to live.\u00a0 Do not get sucked into this matrix of despair.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">Hillaire Belloc once wrote, \u201cWherever the Catholic sun doth shine,<\/span> <span style=\"color: #000000\">There\u2019s always laughter and good red wine. At least I\u2019ve always found it so.<\/span> <span style=\"color: #000000\">Benedicamus Domino!\u201d Adding to this thought, Father George Rutler said, \u201cJoy on earth is a foretaste of the beatitude in heaven.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">Summer is here.\u00a0 Learn how to relax.\u00a0 Sunday is a day of rest. Go to church and stay away from unnecessary work. \u00a0Be sure to take a nice vacation this summer.\u00a0 Even the Pope takes a vacation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>During my years in Spain and Mexico, it would be inevitable that interesting conversations with either Spaniards or Mexicans would take place regarding the differences between their countries and ours.\u00a0 One man put it bluntly: \u201cLook, the difference between us and you is that we work in order to live, and you live in order&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":382,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,40,77,76],"tags":[88,42,41,87],"class_list":["post-59945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catholic-spirituality","category-contemplation","category-culture-of-life","category-theology-of-the-body","tag-contemplation","tag-sabbath","tag-sunday","tag-vacation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - 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