Mass & Life are Wiggly

Jesus Our Risen Savior Catholic Church, Spartanburg, South Carolina

Each Sunday we arrive at Mass early and claim one of the pews in the back of the Sanctuary.  I don't like sitting in the back, but it's the right thing to do when you have 4 small grandchildren with you under the age of 7!

I have learned that during this season in my life, Sunday Mass is a micro-study in "The World" of today...so many distractions.

Not that my grandchildren are in any way bad in church, they are not!  They are so so so good!  But they are children.  They want to be held.  They fall off the kneeler.  They need to go to the bathroom.  They ask a question at the most in-opportune time.  They need assistance getting off and on the pew.  They have "wardrobe malfunctions", getting stuck in coats, bows fall out or shoes fall off.  They can't control their whisper.  They want help to find the song page.  They want to sit on my lap.  They wiggle.

It might not even be my loved ones distracting me, it might be the people in front, beside, behind me.  They are in my "radar scope" and I see them from the corner of my eye - a noise, a blur, a bump, a wiggle.


Just like the World.

Busy, insistent, noisy, attention-stealing....our lives are wiggly.

We are headed in one direction when something wiggles in the peripheral of our vision.  Our attention is altered.  We are distracted.  We change direction, move to something else.

First thing you know, the day is over and we have spent time doing things we never intended, no matter how well-meaning or good, still - it was a distraction from the other activities we wanted/needed to do.

Jesus warned us in several parables to be ready, be prepared.  Basically:  Keep Your Eye On The Ball.

Hard to do in today's World.  Satan LOVES the World.  Satan loves to distract us with the World.

It's an effort every single day to stay focused.  To turn back from the distractions and set your eyes back on the Altar of God.

We want to pray, we want to go to daily Mass, we want to participate in Eucharist more often, we want to attend bible studies, Adoration, Reconciliation.

"The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak"...only the second half of Matthew 26:41.

It's a battle every day to stay focused on the Lord.

Dear God, help me to pay attention to you.  When I am distracted by the pull of daily life, turn my face back towards you as soon as possible.  Help me to be strong to ignore the World as background noise and keep my heart centered on You each day.  Amen.

As we move through the busy, out-of-focus, noisy, wiggly world, let us work hard to stay focused on Jesus and our path to Heaven to be with Him and His Father.

Oh...and the first part part of Matt 26:41?  

"Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test."