Dear Sisters & Brothers in Christ,

How often we are amazed at the teaching and wisdom of Jesus’ words. In Western Christianity, Saint Benedict is recognized as the father of monastic life because of authoring monastic rules. The very well-known Latin phrase ‘ora et labora’ (pray and work) comes from Benedict’s rules. In fact, his rules of monastic life included three elements: listening, praying, and working. That spirit had a significant impact not only on monasticism, but it also affected the development of Western civilization. Benedict lived five centuries after Jesus, Martha, and Mary. We can clearly see the roots of Benedict’s vision in today’s gospel reading as we need to keep a balance in our life between activity and spirituality. Mary had a great gift to listen to Jesus. Martha had a great gift of serving. Both gifts are a part of hospitality. We show our love when we take care of our visitor, and when we are attentive to the visitor’s words. We show our love to God when we open our ears and hearts before Him, and when we put His words into action.

How many minutes do we dedicate to prayer every day? How many minutes do we dedicate to other people every day?

OK, let us count on a weekly basis. If we spend 50 minutes on Sunday Mass, 5 minutes for morning prayer, 5 minutes for evening prayer each day, it makes 50 + 10 * 7 = 120 minutes a week. How many minutes do we have every week? Please do not tell me you have no time. Every one of us gets 24 hours a day. 24 hours multiplied by 60 minutes, and by 7 days makes 10,080 minutes a week. It means that if we pray for 5 minutes in the morning, and in the evening and we attend Sunday Mass, we spend 1.2% percent of our time for prayer. What do we do with 98.8% of our time in life? It depends on the 1.2%. Listen and pray for just 1% of your time, and your whole life will be changed.

May God bless you!
Fr. Andrew