In 1543, Nicholas Copernicus published his earth-shattering work On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, which posited a heliocentric model of the universe as opposed to a geocentric one. Despite its inaccuracies, we now know Copernicus to have been correct. The earth orbits around the sun. The earth is not the center of the universe. According to this “new” model, the sun is. If the sun isn’t exactly at the geometric center of the universe, we know the earth moves around the sun. In its day, this was a revolutionary shift in thinking. The Church certainly didn’t want to hear that the earth wasn’t at the center of things; remember how Galileo would later suffer at the hands of the Church. To accept that the sun was the center of the universe required a completely radical shift in orientation for the Renaissance mind.
When we enter into a relationship with God, and especially one where we know God in Christ, the priorities of our own personal universes are changed. We frequently fail to recognize this, but to be a Christian—and in 2023, no less—means putting God at the center of our lives, instead of ourselves, our work, our extracurricular activities, our money, and our possessions. Do you see how wild this is? Do you see how utterly confounding it may be? Isn’t this one of the most difficult things to do?
This is what we profess: our lives are not our own, they are God’s. Our acquired wealth is not our money, it’s God’s. Our talents are not of our own achieving, they are gifts from God. No matter how much our lives are vocational, and no matter how much our “work” may be fulfilling and a response to God’s call to us, the truth is that God is at the center of it all, and God invites us to see this and accept it in love. And so our week is centered not on Friday or on the day the big project is due or on the day of the soccer match; our week revolves around Sunday, the Lord’s Day. This is the day on which Jesus broke the bonds of death and gave us life and freedom. It is the day that shapes every second of our lives.
I’m writing about this now because we are entering into a new season. It’s not Advent, and we are not yet beginning a new Church year. It’s not a new calendar year. We are starting a new program year. A program year is hardly a theological construction, but it is, for better or for worse, the time in which we leave summer behind and commit ourselves anew to “life as usual.” But I want to suggest that this program year, you consider making God the center of all that is usual. Can you make what is ordinary extraordinary by letting God inform all of it? Here are some gentle suggestions.
Make the Lord’s Day primary for you and your family. Come to church every Sunday. Let it be the norm rather than the exception. Attend adult formation. Bring your children to Sunday School/children’s formation. It may seem like a chore at times, but I don’t think you will regret it.
Make time for prayer each and every day. Maybe your prayers are brief ones at key moments in the day, but invite God into your life so that it becomes unceasing prayer. Come to Morning or Evening Prayer at the church if you can, or pray with us online. Attend Masses on Major Holy Days to let the sacred rhythm of the Church’s calendar break into our other calendars.
Consider doing something at church (or engaging in a spiritual practice) during the week. Make time for that and then fit everything else in. Maybe it’s the Wednesday evening contemplative prayer/mindfulness group or Pilgrims in Christ. Maybe it’s one of our online offerings through the retreat house or a Saturday day retreat. It could be helping with our retreat house ministry. We have many ways to grow in faith, hope, and love at Good Shepherd.
These are only a few suggestions, but I hope you get the point. At first, restructuring one’s life in this drastically different way might seem like a chore, a duty, or even contrived. Don’t worry about that; it will only feel as such because our lives have become so misshapen by the world in which we live. Spiritual practice is like athletic training or musical practice; it takes time and intention. And with time and intention, we will find the Holy Spirit drawing us into freedom and joy. The Holy Spirit will be more in control, and we will step aside. Our Christian calling is to put God at the center of all we do, and because God became incarnate in Jesus Christ, it means that even the ordinary can be imbued with the holiness of God.
I’m very excited for the beginning of this new program year. If you are a student or the parent of a student, bring your (or your children’s) backpacks to be blessed at coffee hour after Sung Mass. We will welcome back our choir at Sung Mass and have an official welcome to Jack Burnam (our Interim Organist & Choirmaster) and his wife, Jeannette, at coffee hour. I hope to see you in church this Sunday!
Yours in Christ,
Father Kyle