(Christine Heaney, Kristie Farrigan and Gabriela Gomez arrive at the Life Teen Conference 2010 at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas.)
Last week when we traveled to Kansas for the Life Teen Conference it was quite funny how some poeple packed. Some of our students pulled out of their arriving car with an average sized luggage. It was easy to carry and store. When we arrived at the airport we begin checking the not-so-average pieces of luggage. The largest among our luggage was close to 50 pounds. So, how much do you pack when you are going away? Some people gather their needs and place them in a backpack and off they go. Others get their suitcase and can barely fit the essentials. But the Lord tells us to travel light. "Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals; and greet no one along the way."
The Gospel encourages us to bring nothing along that will weigh us down or hinder our task. The fact is we all have a lot of baggage that hinders us from the more important work of spreading the Good News. Too many parents barely know their kids because they work long hours at jobs to pay for a life style that is too expensive. On top of all this we add endless projects and pursuits that keep us running all over God’s green acre. Perhaps good in themselves, they become too much of a good thing and we end up barely knowing the first people we are to evangelize, our children.
The Lord says, lighten up, less, is more, simplify and do with less. Do the more important first: God, family, school and community. Learn to prioritize and then say “no” when necessary. The bottom line is that we just have too much baggage, too many distractions and the Gospel goes unlived and unpreached. Habit two: Be simple!
(Ryan Glass, Jay Valentine, and Sean McVeigh are greeted by the Raven, the Benedictine College mascot, when we first arrived on campus.)
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Pray for the Canonization of Blessed William Joseph Chaminade
"Perfection consists in putting off the old man and putting on the new. Now, what is the old man? It is our corrupt nature, which we have received from our first father as an inheritance. This nature must be annihilated, and put off entirely to make room for the new Adam, that is, Jesus Christ."
Blessed William Joseph Chaminade
