Message from Fr. Joe - August, 17 2025

As I write this article, I am doing some "simple" maintenance on my car. I follow the right steps and use the right tools, but it's still a slow job. Most of my daily jobs, which I do on a computer, are fast. Once I know what to do, the job is quick and easy. This is an advantage of modern technology. But beyond the digital world, in the real world, most jobs require patience. Working on a car requires patience. Landscaping, home improvement, art, and music require patience. You can't force things to go your way all at once. This is how the real world works. The human soul lives in the real world, not the digital world. This is one of the reasons we have our liturgical season of Ordinary Time.

Advent/Christmas and Lent/Easter come with many special graces, but we have lots of time in between which we call Ordinary Time. We are in the middle of it right now. "ordinary" doesn't mean "boring". On the contrary, we do most of the important work in our souls during this time. We grow virtues and cut down sins. This all takes time, because our souls live in the real world. So we need patience as we work on our souls, just like working on a car. We can't force things to happen immediately, but we need to stay consistent for years or decades to develop our souls. It's a good thing that each year we get thirty-four weeks of Ordinary Time to patiently, consistently work on our souls.

Don't get bored of working on your soul just because things are quiet right now. Don't get discouraged because the work takes a long time. It takes a long time because it's real work. Building up your soul is the work of a lifetime; it should take a lifetime because it's the most important work you will ever do. If you work patiently and diligently, you will see progress, and you'll be more ready to joyfully celebrate the Church's great feasts when they arrive.

Fr. Joe