Distractions

When you have three kids under the age of four, celebrating mass becomes a whole different experience. Trying to maintain reverence and focus while you’re separating children, mixing bottles, teaching a whisper, getting puked on, getting your hair pulled, opening another baggie of fruit snacks after losing count of how many they’ve had already (thanks grandma)…it’s a different challenge for sure, especially when your husband works retail every other weekend. Yet, as is the focus of this blog, a great practice in virtue. 

I’ve learned to wear beads as a necklace or bracelet that will entertain the baby. I’ve learned that cheerios can get crushed so fruit snacks are the better option in desperate moments. And, I’ve learned to always read and study the readings before mass because the chance that I’ll get distracted during one is 99%. 

Distraction. 

I was sharing this as a cross of mine with Fr. Roy awhile back. When you have 35 plates spinning at once, it is an obvious monster to conquer. In school administration managing that distraction is one thing, but at mass it’s a whole different ball game. I mean, here is Jesus Christ before me; body, blood, soul, and divinity. He wants to tell me something, but I’m wiping up milk from a broken sippy cup praying that the family behind me didn’t see. 

One suggestion Matthew Kelly makes in his newest book, Resisting Happiness, is to take a journal with you to mass. Jot down something from a liturgical prayer, the homily, the Word… in which you hear God’s voice. I told Fr. Roy I thought this would be a good idea for me and inquired if that would be a distraction to him as a priest if people were sitting there jotting things down? 

For example, the words from his last homily, “Cooperate with God’s grace,” were what I needed to hear. That’s it. I didn’t want to forget the way it struck my heart. I did write it down and I have revisited those four words often in prayer since. 

Grace is God’s unmerited favor upon us, yet I can’t just sit around burying my share of His grace in the ground hoping to preserve it. No. It is a call to action.

Having a growth mindset means taking risks for God, putting yourself out there, messing up trying, and going back humbly and saying to Him, “Where did I go wrong?” 

Then, hearing the loving and gentle voice of God saying, “I love you. Your intentions were pure. I will help you try it another way. I am God and I will make what I want from this situation happen anyway…more good than you can every imagine has come from what you call mistakes. Trust in me.”

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee…

Mary cooperated with God’s grace. It was not passive. She made an active choice despite the incredible amount of fear, doubt, and insanity surrounding the situation. She said yes. She, out of her own free will and total submission to the Lord, said Yes. 

Let Mary be our example this week as we weed out distractions to hear God’s voice so we might be able to fully cooperate with His grace. By doing so our eyes will be open to the relationships in front of us that need Him and using what we’ve learned from the temperaments to respond. 

What did you decide to give up or do more this Lent? Managing distractions will help us make choices grounded in a growth mindset like that of the saints - ready and willing to take a risk, ready and willing to hang ourselves up on the Cross with Him, ready and willing to trust God in all we do.