Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Balance

I think a good thing I would like to see more discussion of is the balance between family, work, and spiritual life.  I think it is great when there are opportunities (like mass) where family and spiritual life come together, but there is a delicate balance between all of these.  For those of us called to married life, we need to find and take advantage of those opportunities.  They can be some of the greatest spiritual development to both ourselves and our families.  At the same time.  things like work responsibility are extremely important to everyone.  I think this raises two points:

First, the Catholic Church recognizes the importance of our daily work.  Especially people like Opus Dei, who realize that we should dedicate our daily work to God, but also our regular morning prayers and such.  This compared to my Protestant denomination who cannot see the value of prayer that exists in our daily work and dedicating that to God. 

But even more so, it gets me thinking about the Priesthood.  Knowing the responsibilities just of family, it is hard for me to imagine how a priest could maintain a family and totally dedicate himself to God's work as a shephard and pastor of a parish.  This helps me put into perspective and totally understand our disciplinary decision to not allow Latin Rite priests to marry.  I think it's a good thing, but definitely controversial to many.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good morning. I've just come across a website with daily readings and prayers. Very interesting.

www.universalis.com

Greg said...

Thanks Joseph for this excellent post! I totally agree with you regarding priestly celibacy. I know that some pastors can successfully do this -- have a family and a parish/congregation. But I completly support the Church's teaching on this discipline (as I also support Her wisdom on all of Her teachings).

It is my opinion that something would have to give on an emotional and spiritual level between the two -- spouse/parent vs. pastor.

Greg said...

Thanks for the post Mel! This is actually a blessing. I've been meaning to search for a good on-line source for the Liturgy of the Hours / Daily Office. This is perfect!!! God works in mysterious ways.

~Joseph the Worker said...

Yep Mel, that's the Liturgy of the Hours that I am always talking about. All Priests, religious brothers and sisters, and deacons recite those every day, as well as lay people like myself who try to do as much of them as our daily life allows. It's a good thing to comment in a post on balance! You should try them some, I think they would be very beneficial to you, especially since you are beginning a study of the Psalms.

THS said...

Jesus himself took the apostles away from their jobs and families to follow him.