{"id":59961,"date":"2011-09-09T22:42:14","date_gmt":"2011-09-09T22:42:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thesmokingpriest\/?p=59961"},"modified":"2011-09-09T22:42:14","modified_gmt":"2011-09-09T22:42:14","slug":"maintaining-joy-in-the-middle-of-the-craziness-around-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thesmokingpriest\/2011\/09\/maintaining-joy-in-the-middle-of-the-craziness-around-us.html","title":{"rendered":"Maintaining Joy in the Middle of the Craziness Around Us"},"content":{"rendered":"

Normally I wake up every morning in a great mood, always filled with enthusiasm to do what I can to fulfill my daily mission as a Catholic priest.\u00a0 However, this morning, I awoke with a horrible feeling.\u00a0 I kept pushing myself all morning.\u00a0 Yes, I got my work done, but I could not shake this pervasive feeling that was keeping me down all morning. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I had lunch with a very dear priest friend of mine.\u00a0 Our conversations are always very positive and there is always a lot of laughter.\u00a0 Nevertheless, when he left, I still felt the same way I did all morning. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Quickly I started to think about what could be causing my bad mood and lethargic feeling. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Did it have something to do with the 10th year remembrance of September 11?<\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I still have vivid memories of how I first heard the news on that terrible day.<\/span><\/p>\n

On September 11, 2001, I began to hear confessions at the customary thirty minutes prior to the morning Mass in a Catholic parish in Corpus Christi, Texas. <\/span><\/p>\n

The first penitent entered the confessional and before he began his confession, he told me that something dreadful was happening in New York City.\u00a0 He heard something on the news during his drive to the parish, but he wasn\u2019t sure exactly what was happening. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I had to begin Mass on time, so before I began to celebrate Mass, I told the congregation gathered together in the small daily Mass chapel that something terrible is going on in New York City.\u00a0 I asked them to pray for this intention. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As soon as I finished Mass, I quickly went into my room and turned the television on.\u00a0 The first plane had already hit.\u00a0 Filled with horror, I watched the second plane hit and the eventual collapse of the Twin Towers. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That afternoon, a parishioner who was a flight school student at the Naval Air Station located in Corpus Christi, came to tell me that his brother worked in an office located in the Twin Towers.\u00a0 The office was located above where one of the planes had hit.\u00a0 His family had heard nothing from him since the time of the attacks and the worst case scenario was expected.<\/span><\/p>\n

We sat together, alone, in the main church, and we prayed together for quite some time.\u00a0 I mustered up some words of encouragement and he went back to his work. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I lost track of him for about three to four weeks and then he returned one Sunday only to tell me that his brother was gone.\u00a0 The family had a funeral for him with no body, because his body could not be found.\u00a0 They had to assume that he was one of the thousands that were lost in the tragedy that occurred on September 11.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now that I think about it, I guess all of these vivid and sad memories did cause this terrible and pervasive feeling of discouragement. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, that feeling is now gone. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This afternoon, I knew that I had to get rid of the heaviness.\u00a0 The weekend is quickly approaching, and I don\u2019t have time for a pity party. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I cleared my calendar, shut off my cell phone and I sat in my prayer chair, the one that I have in my quiet room.\u00a0 After an hour and a half of centering prayer I remembered the beautiful words of Saint Theresa of Avila, the famous Spanish mystic. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLet nothing trouble you.\u00a0 Let nothing frighten you.\u00a0 Everything passes.\u00a0 God never changes.\u00a0 Patience obtains all.\u00a0 Whoever has God wants for nothing.\u00a0 God alone is enough.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Saint Theresa is right.\u00a0 I sure do feel much better.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Normally I wake up every morning in a great mood, always filled with enthusiasm to do what I can to fulfill my daily mission as a Catholic priest.\u00a0 However, this morning, I awoke with a horrible feeling.\u00a0 I kept pushing myself all morning.\u00a0 Yes, I got my work done, but I could not shake this…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":382,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,40,77,43,85,83],"tags":[78,54,53,52],"class_list":["post-59961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catholic-spirituality","category-contemplation","category-culture-of-life","category-friendship","category-inspiration","category-jesus","tag-catholic-spirituality","tag-centering-prayer","tag-saint-theresa-of-avila","tag-september-11"],"yoast_head":"\nMaintaining Joy in the Middle of the Craziness Around Us - The Smoking Priest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thesmokingpriest\/2011\/09\/maintaining-joy-in-the-middle-of-the-craziness-around-us.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Maintaining Joy in the Middle of the Craziness Around Us - The Smoking Priest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Normally I wake up every morning in a great mood, always filled with enthusiasm to do what I can to fulfill my daily mission as a Catholic priest.\u00a0 However, this morning, I awoke with a horrible feeling.\u00a0 I kept pushing myself all morning.\u00a0 Yes, I got my work done, but I could not shake this…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thesmokingpriest\/2011\/09\/maintaining-joy-in-the-middle-of-the-craziness-around-us.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Smoking Priest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-09-09T22:42:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Father James Farfaglia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Maintaining Joy in the Middle of the Craziness Around Us - The Smoking Priest","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thesmokingpriest\/2011\/09\/maintaining-joy-in-the-middle-of-the-craziness-around-us.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Maintaining Joy in the Middle of the Craziness Around Us - The Smoking Priest","og_description":"Normally I wake up every morning in a great mood, always filled with enthusiasm to do what I can to fulfill my daily mission as a Catholic priest.\u00a0 However, this morning, I awoke with a horrible feeling.\u00a0 I kept pushing myself all morning.\u00a0 Yes, I got my work done, but I could not shake this…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thesmokingpriest\/2011\/09\/maintaining-joy-in-the-middle-of-the-craziness-around-us.html","og_site_name":"The Smoking Priest","article_published_time":"2011-09-09T22:42:14+00:00","author":"Father James Farfaglia","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thesmokingpriest\/2011\/09\/maintaining-joy-in-the-middle-of-the-craziness-around-us.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thesmokingpriest\/2011\/09\/maintaining-joy-in-the-middle-of-the-craziness-around-us.html","name":"Maintaining Joy in the Middle of the Craziness Around Us - The Smoking Priest","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thesmokingpriest\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-09-09T22:42:14+00:00","dateModified":"2011-09-09T22:42:14+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thesmokingpriest\/#\/schema\/person\/5ba36445fd924e8858c4ed757531d02c"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thesmokingpriest\/2011\/09\/maintaining-joy-in-the-middle-of-the-craziness-around-us.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thesmokingpriest\/2011\/09\/maintaining-joy-in-the-middle-of-the-craziness-around-us.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thesmokingpriest\/2011\/09\/maintaining-joy-in-the-middle-of-the-craziness-around-us.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thesmokingpriest"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Maintaining Joy in the Middle of the Craziness Around Us"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thesmokingpriest\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thesmokingpriest\/","name":"The Smoking Priest","description":"Just another Beliefnet Blog site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thesmokingpriest\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thesmokingpriest\/#\/schema\/person\/5ba36445fd924e8858c4ed757531d02c","name":"Father James Farfaglia","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thesmokingpriest\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thesmokingpriest\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/fe4\/fe492cc6d06474fdf10dd185cec77b83x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thesmokingpriest\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/fe4\/fe492cc6d06474fdf10dd185cec77b83x96.jpg","caption":"Father James Farfaglia"},"description":"Father James Farfaglia is the founding pastor of Saint Helena of the True Cross of Jesus Catholic Church. He is presently the new pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church. Both parishes are located in Corpus Christi, Texas. You can learn more about Father James, read his homilies and purchase his books by visiting him on the web at www.fatherjames.org.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.fatherjames.org"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thesmokingpriest\/author\/jfarfaglia"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thesmokingpriest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thesmokingpriest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thesmokingpriest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thesmokingpriest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/382"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thesmokingpriest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59961"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thesmokingpriest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59964,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thesmokingpriest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59961\/revisions\/59964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thesmokingpriest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thesmokingpriest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thesmokingpriest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}