Happy New Year and Happy Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary! I hope you had a fruitful Advent, followed by a joyous Christmas with an abundance of family, friendship and food. While the Church still celebrates Christmas for several more days, many have tossed out their Christmas trees and put away all the decorations until next Christmas. Our family always cuts down a real tree on the first weekend in December and by January 1st, it is usually ready to be tossed. I mention this because as quickly as we toss out the old, we also begin to welcome in the new. New Year’s day always comes with new resolutions, new goals and a renewed sense of a fresh start. For many, these goals are related to health and fitness.
This was usually the case with me. However, years ago, I was made aware of the need to make the health and wellbeing of my soul more of a priority than that of my body. For a long time I was a “prayer box” checker. My morning routine consisted of waking up, feeding the dog, grabbing my coffee, going to the quiet space in my home and sitting in what I designated the prayer chair. I would spend time reading or going through a list of prayers. When finished, I’d put my stuff away, throw on my running clothes and head out the door. Prayer box- check!
Is it any wonder that I became increasingly unsatisfied and unsettled with life in general? It was a mystery to me at the time. But it should not have been.
One morning as I sat quietly in prayer, I was enlightened by a thought that to this day, can confidently be credited to the Holy Spirit.
“You spend an awful lot of time exercising and worrying about your physical appearance. In fact, there is quite an imbalance in the time you spend on your bodily health and that spent on the health of your soul and relationship with God. Which is more important? Which will God judge one day?”
This thought continued to creep in the days, weeks and months following.
After all, for years I spent week after week running for hours at a time while training for marathons. I began wondering if the message I was getting was that I needed to give up running, which I had come to depend on for mental clarity and stress relief. One morning I stumbled upon this quote by Eamon Tobin,
“Authentic spirituality does not separate formal prayer and secular activities because the same Spirit is present and active in all of them.”
God wasn’t asking me to give up running. He was asking me to invite Him into that time. To allow him to use this thing I had relied on for coping and head clearing to get to know Him and grow more dependent on Him. He was asking to go running with me!
I now spend my morning run or walk reciting the Rosary. I have committed to saying it daily in combination with exercise. When I finish the Rosary, I try to listen to what God is asking me to do that day. Sometimes I hear him through silence, other times it is through the music I bring along.
This year, allow God into your New Year’s resolutions. If it is a fitness or health goal, find a way to honor and love God through your daily workout. If it is a relationship goal, whether to strengthen or repair, put Him at the center of that relationship. He cares about your goals and your dreams and rightly ordered and in accordance with His will, He gives an abundance of grace to help you achieve them.
Physical Therapist, Matt Gingras, will continue to offer free PT screenings in January, February and March. Come take advantage of Matt’s knowledge and experience to help you get answers to a variety of issues. These may be related to mobility, sports injuries, chronic pain, arthritis, balance and many others. The next date is January 22nd from 9:30-noon in Loyola Hall.
Blood pressures will now be on the last Sunday of the month. Traditionally taken on the 4th Sunday, often times this landed on the last Sunday. However, the few times the we have had 5 Sundays (such as this month), it gets confusing, so beginning this month, all BP screenings will be in the back of Church on the last Sunday of each month. January’s BP screening will take place on January 29th after all weekend Masses.
Advent 80 – Please let me know if you successfully completed the 80 mile trek from Nazareth to Bethlehem during the four weeks of Advent. If so, you will receive a card sometime this month with the date of the Mass offered for your intentions. Thanks so much for all who participated!.
May God bless you and keep you and your families safe throughout the New Year!
Kate Rewwer Parish Health Coordinator
