January 2 – “Turn to Me”

The nuns of Regina Laudis Abbey have set times for worship and have installed bells to call them to it. They have tradition and structure and seasoned leadership ever with them to make sure the Divine Office continues day and night, year after year. Matins, Lauds, Prime and Sext and None, Vespers and Compline: each Office has its own particular emphasis and lends its own edification to the Sisters.


As they make the very most of tradition, structure, and seasoned leadership, we must make use of what we have, and we can learn so to do.


One of the best things we have going for us is the ritual already in place in our lives. For instance, do we wake up and put on a pot of coffee, first thing? We can consecrate those minutes, while the coffee is brewing, to be spent in thanksgiving every day, no exceptions or excuses, no turning back. We haven’t left our families behind or shaved our heads or taken any vows. We have merely . . . decided.


The power of a simple, humble decision cannot be over-rated. The consecration of three and ten minute intervals is continually under-rated.


Don’t drink coffee? We can choose to spend fifteen minutes in prayer and worship before we step outside to bring in the newspaper. Let us rejoice and be glad . . . there are many such times in our lives, such pockets of opportunity, that cannot be taken from us! We have and we use those minutes every day, already, but we seldom convert them to become our own Divine Office. We are waiting to have hours to spend in prayer. We don’t honor our own decisions, and we too often fail to bring before God the little we have, the small loaves and the tiny fish.


Decide upon the blessing of this day; discover one or two or three pockets of time that are fixed in the perpetual constellation of your days. The ten minutes you spend waiting for the children to emerge from school . . . the fifteen minutes you might consecrate each morning before you check your email . . . the half hour that is all yours before the television goes on at night.


Three minutes alone on your knees can change your day, change your life, and change your family. Those minutes belong to you . . . make them your own!



"Take Time!"
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