July 21 – Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Have you ever come back from a vacation and felt like you needed another vacation from your vacation?  As we work, we come to know our limitations and the need to take a break. However, I would argue that not many of us know how to refuel properly. For example, I’ll go for a run (once in a blue moon) only to come back and eat that candy bar, because I think I deserve it!  As much as the candy bar tastes good, it is not exactly what my body needs after a run.

Many of us exert ourselves, but then try to refuel with things that never satisfy. In these summer months, many of us find time to go on a vacation. However, I would encourage you to reflect on how replenishing your vacations actually are, or how you can make your vacations a real time of rest and growth in the spiritual life! 

When I was a missionary, we would encourage our students that when they go home for breaks, to not to take a vacation away from God. In a similar vein, how many of us travel and take a break from going to Sunday Mass?  It is more than just fulfilling our Sunday obligation, but we should invite the Lord into our break, so that we can actually be fed and nourished.  It is beautiful that in our Gospel, after the Apostles were sent on mission, Jesus personally took them to a deserted place so that they could rest.  He wanted to reveal the importance of getting away from the world and spending time with him. 

Taking time for silence is important. Reading spiritual books, or listening to podcasts that lift the soul to God can be extremely fruitful. How many of us say that we don’t have time to pray as much as we should, but then on vacation we don’t make time to seek the Lord- even though we don’t have a million things to get done!

As a priest, I am required by Canonical (Church) law to take a 5-day retreat every year! Luckily, I’m a rule follower and I took my retreat at the beginning of June. It was life giving. I slept, prayed, worked out, and read. I had the opportunity to pray the rosary and divine mercy chaplet every day with a group of holy cloistered nuns. I offered Mass every day for our parish. 

It also allowed me to examine my year as a priest. Just as our first reading calls out the bad shepherds of Israel, I prayed for forgiveness for the ways I may have failed as a shepherd, and I gave thanks to the Lord for the graces I have received as a shepherd (which are many at OLM).

I hope you have seen the fruit of that retreat in my own life and priesthood since I have returned, and I encourage you to find the time to do the same. May the next vacation you take be an opportunity to rest in the Lord and be replenished by him!

Father Michael