The break in ministry pace is an excellent time to do some personal housekeeping. Susan Rowland’s book, Make Room for God, invites you to unclutter your life. I can always tell the state of catechists’ lives by the state of their car trunks.  It seems that the more clutter in that trunk the greater stress and disorder in our life. These days of summer are the perfect time to explore Rowland’s invitation to free our body, mind and soul from the clutter and begin a method of simplicity.  This would be a great book to share with a group of friends and support each other in the effort of creating a simpler lifestyle.

Whatever path our summer takes, it is important to care for our soul during the break from parish work.  One way to tend to our spirit is to mark off a few summer days on the calendar just for you. We should go to a quiet place and pray. Away from all distractions we can listen to God’s voice and journal with the Spirit. It is a necessary discipline to go to our spiritual well. Jesus promises us living water. However, we need to take time out for that sacred drink.

First, Sunday Mass is non-negotiable. Surprisingly, many young Catholic families are unaware that it is not an option. Reassert your desire to begin your week at the sacred table. Nothing produces a healthy and holy family with more ease than giving God a place in your family life. Sunday Mass is a gift you give your children and a pattern that is imprinted on their hearts.

Next, make sure that you put aside all the work you could do for a day of rest. Our minds, bodies and souls need to play and rest. The world calls that wasting time, but God thinks differently. The Genesis creation account makes it clear that seventh day rest was God’s idea of the way we should live. Creating balance in family life requires some good, old-fashioned, family fun.

A book that offers support for the domestic church is Celebrating Faith by Mary Cronk Farrell. She gives some practical advice about keeping Sabbath as a family. It is a tough sell to get the family in gear for Mass on a summer Sunday morning let alone spending Sunday as a day of rest. The author shares a simple family exercise: creating a Family Sabbath Box with suggestions for family Sabbath activities. Celebrating Faith is a great resource to keep on your family bookshelf when you are looking for ways to encourage children to see their everyday lives as sacred. Spend a quiet afternoon with this book and a cool glass of lemonade as you do some dreaming about creating Catholic family life.

Finally, put aside a little quiet time to restore your soul on Sunday. Perhaps a prayerful walk at sunset or a little deck time with the Divine One will refresh your spiritual thirst in the heat of a too-busy-world. This is a time to pray about the direction of the week and the needs of your family. “Be still and know that I am God” is a worthwhile summer practice.

Henri Nouwen must have been responding to the signs in his own life when he left the world of academia (Notre Dame, Yale and Harvard) and joined the L’Arche Daybreak Community in Toronto to share life with people with developmental disabilities. He chose to leave a world in which he was well-known and considered a spiritual guide to live with people who didn’t recognize his fame and wouldn’t be able to probe the depths of his insights. Yet it was within this community that he discovered a remarkable spiritual guide in a severely disabled young man named Adam.

Take some time this summer to care for yourself, to pay attention to the signs of your life. I invite you to join Henri Nouwen in his appreciation for the gift of Adam and the lessons learned from Adam’s life and death. I’ve selected a clip from the audiobook Adam: God’s Beloved to share with you. (Windows Media | RealMedia). This delightful little book calls us to become more attuned to the many “Christ events” in our own lives, when “spirit greets spirit in the body.”

May you find the summer rest you need. May you receive new eyes to see and new ears to hear the presence and call of God in your life. May you be confident of God’s faithfulness as you weather the changes of life.

Chosen and Cherished is based on the wisdom found in Proverbs 31. (“A good wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels.”) This six-part, 12-session study digs into the advice that the author of the Book of Proverbs gives to a young man seeking a good wife. Starting with a good wife’s character, then her ability to bring her husband wealth, health and a prosperous household, the author of Proverbs offers a challenging job description for any spouse.

Chosen and Cherised is primarily meant to be a catalyst for fruitful discussion of the attributes of a godly marriage. Kimberly Hahn accompanies this book with a set of DVD presentations that present the study material in an extremely engaging fashion. Small groups, study groups, women’s groups, couples or young people preparing for marriage will find plenty of material for sharing, conversation and prayer in this study. The Chosen and Cherished book is also available separately from the DVD presentations.  An excellent presentation on the holiness of marriage and an excellent beginning point for study of the Scriptures.