Putting Things Off!

Do you ever have one of those days when you just don’t do what you know you need to? You know the type of days when you occupy yourself with everything else but what needs to be done. For me today started out to be one of those days. I had two simple homework assignments which I needed to attend to. As we essentially have Wednesdays off as a work day, pretty sweet I know, this task should have been very easy. Well it is 2:35pm and I have yet to do what I needed to do. I had a wonderful morning which began with Mass celebrated by the Archbishop of Louisville (he seems like a real nice guy). Following Mass I had a quick breakfast and ran to pay my bills. When I returned I had long lunch, and then returned to my room. It was there that I checked my email, read the newspaper, cleaned my room (yes, for real), cleaned bellringer's tank (note: do not accidently poor the fish out with the water, I did and he was real hard to scoop up as he was jumping around the sink-not to worry he is safely in water now, although I do admit I was a little scared he was going to flop himself down the open drain!) and even vacuumed. I imagine all of you know exactly what I am talking about.
Somehow I can find time to check email, text message friends, relax, watch tv, go for a walk, socialize, eat, eat some more, eat again, and again, and yet not for homework. Why is it so hard to find time to do what you don’t want to do and yet so easy to waste time. Time seemingly is abundant supply when you aren’t doing anything, yet in short supply when you need it most. It is so easy to crowd things out of our lives, things that should not be, things like homework. It seems as if the more you need to carve time out for it, the easier it is not to. Know what I mean? Seriously the greater my need grows; the less I desire to make it happen.
Thinking about my own relationship with God, I can’t help but wonder if all of our prayer lives are like this. Something that needs our immediate attention, something that helps us grow and something that is so easy to put off, rush through or even to pretend it does not exist. Yet in the end, without prayer we are not in a good place at all. One of the things they try to teach us at the Seminary is to put our prayer lives first. Through a rhythm of daily prayer they help us organize our lives in this manner. For me the greatest prayers I have offered thus far are from the bottom of my heart when I visit the empty chapel late at night. There in the silence God waits for me and there in the silence he whispers to my heart. Each and every day I am here I become increasingly aware of this whisper, the love that it entails and its presence in each and every one of us.