'Time Management/The Home'

 

I read something pivotal on 8 February 1995, “The Trinitarians were one of the first religious orders to combine monastic discipline with pastoral work and one of the first to become international in its work.”

 

I then thought why not combine monastic discipline with managing the home…our lives and have been thinking, reading, studying, teaching and now publishing about that wonderful conviction since that particular read!

 

I heartily apologize for not listing Sources or References attributed to these gems for assimilating. I read two to three books at a time, daily scripture and commentaries, the breviary, bulletins, Vatican Information Service daily, postal mail, Internet Favorites, a few weeklies, newsletters and newspapers, and have for years hence…well, you see my point! (You are invited to click Read! Read! Read! and see for yourself!)

 

I never dreamed that I would be able to share this wonderful verbiage on this link and now, alas, I cannot go back and find all! Just enjoy and know that He is whom we seek by any verbiage we can read, apostolic action we can do and hearts that know no bounds in seeking Him, our Bread of Life and Source of all that is Right and Good.

 

We must not run aimlessly!

 

The Latin word for hearth is focus!

 

For it is not enough to ‘get organized’ but to have one’s heart, soul an mind in order so that we might become instruments in his hands.

 

Any type of work could be meaningful. It’s the spirit in which you do it that makes the difference. It takes time for the ‘chatter’ to quiet down and in the silence of ‘not doing’ I begin to know what I feel. Housework hasn’t changed but my attitude toward the work has changed.

 

It is not about rushing through the tasks to achieve a series of goals that is satisfying; it’s experiencing each moment along the way. Having limits, subtracting distractions, making a commitment to do what you do well, brings a new kind of intensity.

 

There is a big difference between having many choices and making a choice. Making a choice – declaring what is essential creates a framework for life that eliminates many choices but gives meaning to the things that remain.

 

They (Amish) work to work. Their work time isn’t spent ‘in order to do something else’ – to have free time in order to do other things. They do not expect to find

satisfaction in that vague ‘something out there’ but in the daily mastery of whatever they are doing. The inherent order that permeated their lives began to calm me.

 

Home-keepers and home-minders…It is a simple fact that there is not greater task, responsibility and privilege in this world than to make a home.

 

Perfunctory – Latin…to get through with…what we think we are ‘getting through’ has the power to change us, just as we have the power to transform what seems meaningless, the endless repetition of a litany or the motions of vacuuming a floor.

 

It isn’t enough to be busy. Ants are busy. The question is ‘what are we busy about?’

 

An orderly home can be a marvelous goal as long as the routine necessary to maintain that order doesn’t exact an unhealthy price tag.

 

Children aren’t fooled. They know we give time to the things we love.

 

A woman’s life today (1955) is tending more and more toward the statement William James describes so well in the German word Zerrissenheit – torn-to-pieces-hood.

 

Say ‘yes’ if it won’t make them sick or put them in danger. Trust them as much as possible, but, in the meantime, try to remove as many temptations and dangers as you can. Children, in fact, will not do what you simply will not tolerate. A more effective approach is a healthy dose of trust, with a heap of praise and a dash of encouragement.

 

Never compare yourself to another mother. Being a mother, as far as I can tell, is a constantly evolving process of adapting to the needs of your child while also changing and growing as a person in your own right.

 

Quality time is inviting your children to be part of your life because you enjoy being with them so much. You don’t need to give your children everything. You simply need to include them.

 

Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of the non-essentials. Time management for the essentials…realizing it’s all essential if it’s prayer first. The Father guides.

 

To love what you do and to feel that it matters…how could anything be more fun?

 

It is not how much we have but how much we enjoy what we have that makes happiness.

 

The greatest possession you have is the twenty-four hours right in front of you.

 

If you want to live the day with God you need at least twenty minutes’ prayer each morning. You must being order in your homes if you want to pray.

 

Our lives get complicated because complexity is so much simpler than simplicity.

 

The spirituality of the work – making a home is a work of art. It involves every possible ounce of imagination, intention and care with the hope that the product will be beautiful.  The product is a place, a space which reflects the inner life of the people who dwell there and which can assist them in getting in touch with their inner life. The whole earth can be a home in a broader sense. It reflects the purpose of its inhabitants.

 

We try to bring order to the inner world by beginning with activity in the outer one….calmness of spirit.

 

Writing it down frees the mind but keeps the thought.

 

The forming of new habits does not mean an overnight transformation. A new habit can be permanently acquired only after 21 days of repeated practice.

 

Time is life. It is irreversible and irreplaceable. To waste your time is to waste your life, but to master your time is to master your life and make the most of it.

 

Not having a goal is more to be feared than not reaching a goal…I would rather attempt to do something great and fail than attempt to do nothing and succeed.

 

Minutes are time and time is life. If you can find more of it to do the things you want to do, you have given yourself a priceless gift.

 

What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

 

Why is managing a home and family so difficult? No one ever taught us how.

Everyone assumes women instinctively know how to manage the most difficult and the most important job in the world, and we don’t.

 

Time management is self-management.

 

Stress is not the situation. It’s the way you react to the situation.

 

Goal setting must be the first step in learning time management. Focus your time and energy on planning the controllable part of your life.

 

We’ve experienced no failure, only some mistakes, and we’ve learned from every one.

 

The home provides the serenity, the courage, and the strength for the entire family to go out into the world and make a contribution. It is the refueling station for us all. Whether you work outside the home or are a full-time homemaker, the importance of this job cannot be diminished.

 

Establish a system and stick with it. It’s not the work that makes you tired; it’s the undone work.  

 

…even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives. We need to remember that is not our role to change our husband and children. 1 Pt. 3:1 /God will do that in His time…we must be faithful to the scriptures and love our families even when they may not return that love.

 

The alternative of not organizing is that others will control our lives.

 

What we want to do is minimize the number of good things in life in order to concentrate on doing the best things in life.

 

Living with a schedule, you’ll discover, requires instant fine tuning…organize then concentrate and enjoy where you are in your work for that moment. Simply move from now to now…the present moment which is completely itself. Joy and happiness with divine interruptions, each moment is as real as the next as long s you are fully attendant to it.

 

Walk your home room by room with three black trash bags; To Keep, To Pitch and To Repair!!

 

To find an inner source of self-worth; that is more basic than trying to be perfect.

 

A secret of a peaceful and happy marriage and family life is the realization that our children and our spouse are key factors serving as channels of grace for us. We must see God within, behind, beneath, below, around every person in our family as gift, no matter how difficult or demanding, of His providence.

 

I look for silence in my own mind when I fix my attention on one object , one person, or one thought at a time.

 

The brook would lose its song if you removed the rocks.

 

Rather than do battle with time, I’ve learned to get it on my side and win its support.

 

Busyness can keep us from having to reflect, risk intimacy, or face the void.

 

Energy and nerve are required to evaluate which of our tasks are absolutely necessary, and which ones are based on habit, old routines and obsolete obligations.

 

Most of us could be more productive if we allow ourselves to do nothing from time to time.

 

The solution to living well lies not in new and better technology but in the selective disuse of it so that life can be enjoyed in a more emotionally fulfilling way.

 

Living a hectic pace sort of detaches you from your better self. It detaches you from your deeper self.

 

If beleaguered self-sacrifice is even part of our self-perception, pruning our schedules is that much harder. Doing so requires giving up part of our identity.

 

Could it be it’s not so much ‘making ends meet “as supporting our life-style” that is the rationale for being so out of balance time wise.

 

Treat delays as found time.

 

Make better choices about what we buy, do and aspire to do by assessing their cost to us in terms of pace and pressure.

 

Noise protects us from the searching within ourselves. We find God by uncovering our own truth; and it is this search for God that we can better discover who we are. St. Theresa of Avila

 

Our life of poverty is as necessary as the work itself. Only in heaven will we see how much we owe to the power for helping us to love God better because of them. Mother Teresa

 

The kingdom of God is within. Things suffocate the precious setting of the ‘kingdom.’

 

The space between someone doing the best he or she can and someone in need is holy ground.

 

The Jesuits’ educational philosophy rests on one principle: Cura personalis – care of the whole person.

 

It is not perfection that leads us to God; it is perseverance.

 

Develop the capacity to enjoy doing things rather than getting them done. Life is for doing, not for getting done. God is in the present, not to be gotten out of the way. …

 

allow time to be swept up in the divine interruptions; waste time with God!

 

Creative and productive work are simply meant to enhance the Garden and sustain us while we grow into God.

 

Voluntary simplicity is a matter of obedience – to live integrated with life, to live as Christ taught, to live as Christ lived, joyously aware that we have the ability to be generous if we so choose.

 

Voluntary simplicity means living with less because we are able. Americans are taught to know what they want, but they may not have a clear sense of what they need. I ‘like that’ instead of ‘I want that’ - can like all you want, do not have to own.

 

Aside from medical reasons, maybe we don’t feel good because we are out of relationship with our Creator. Feeling good is not the ultimate objective; living in a healthy relationship with God is.

 

When we try to reserve our strength it works out in weariness. Spend to the hilt all we have got and God’s recreating power is greater than all the expended power.

 

...monasteries, places where nothing ever happens, places the world calls dull, that we discover that we can change. In choosing a bare-bones existence, we are enriched, and can redefine success as an internal process rather than an outward display of wealth and power.

 

Leisure is taking things separate, one by one, and singling them out for grateful consideration.

 

The truly compassionate and kind person who gives up time for others manages to find time. Like the bread miraculously multiplied, one gives, yet gathers up more than one gave.

 

God responds to each of us where we are and takes into account what we are capable of doing.

 

Proper use of money can be a religious experience. Like the spiritual life, money longs for expansion…It is never finished with us, prodding, provoking and even uplifting us if we allow it.

 

Don’t put it down, put it away!

 

It is not enough to ‘get organized’ but to have one’s heart, soul and mind in order so that we might become instruments in His hands.

 

Sundays I data fast!

 

Stress if often created by incomplete cycles and projects. Chores half finished and items lying around can make you tired and unhappy. Your attention gets stuck on these items. The undone makes you undone…concentrate on finishing the task at hand…plan, prioritize and choose! Streamline and simplify.

 

I hear and I forget. I see and hear and I remember.

 

 It is a fundamental truth that you cannot leave a man’s soul empty. It is not enough to ‘get organized’ but to have one’s heart, soul and mind in order so that we might become instruments in His hands. That is filling a woman with something.

 

…the state of a person who has directed life not to amassing possessions but to eliminating needs.

 

Sanctifying Time: The Catholic Meaning of Days and Months SAM GUZMAN

 

The liturgical cycle gives shape and meaning to the year, and each season brings new significance. But the liturgical year is just the beginning. Did you know Mother Church has also assigned meaning to each day and month of the year? It’s true. Let’s briefly examine the significance of each day and month.

 

Catholic Time

 

Holy Days

 

Sunday: The Holy Trinity - Sunday is dedicated to the Holy Trinity. This is entirely fitting as Sunday is the first day of the week and the day when we offer God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit our praise, adoration, and thanksgiving.

 

Monday: The Angels – Monday is the day in which we remember the angels. Angels are powerful guardians, and each of us is protected by one. Many of the saints had a great devotion to the angels in general and to their guardian angel in particular.

 

Tuesday: The Apostles –

The Catholic Church is apostolic. That is, it is founded on the authority and teaching of the apostles, most especially that of St. Peter to whom Jesus gave the keys of his kingdom. Each bishop is a direct successor of the apostles.

 

Wednesday: Saint Joseph –

Saint Joseph is known as the prince and chief patron of the Church. As the earthly father of Jesus, he had a special role in protecting, providing for, and instructing Jesus during his earthly life. Now that Christ is ascended into heaven, St. Joseph continues his fatherly guardianship of Christ’s body, the Church.

 

Thursday: The Holy Eucharist –

Our Lord instituted the most holy Eucharist on a Thursday, so it is fitting that we remember this greatest of sacraments on this day. The Eucharist is the greatest gift of God to mankind, as it is nothing less than Jesus himself. What gift could be greater?

 

Friday: The Passion –

Jesus was scourged, mocked, and crucified on a Friday. Because of this, the Church has always set aside Fridays of days of penance and sacrifice. While the U.S. sadly does not require abstinence from meat on Fridays, penance is still required in one form or another. This day should always be a day of repentance and a day in which we recall Christ’s complete self-sacrifice to save us from our sins.

 

Saturday: Our Lady –

 

There are a number of theological reasons Saturdays are dedicated to Our Lady, perhaps the most significant is that on Holy Saturday, when everyone else had abandoned Christ in the tomb, she was faithful to him, confidently waiting for his resurrection on the first day of the week.

 

Holy Months

 

January: The Holy Name of Jesus –

There is no name more powerful than the name of Jesus. The Catechism sums up the power of this name beautifully: “The name ‘Jesus’ contains all: God and man and the whole economy of creation and salvation. To pray ‘Jesus’ is to invoke him and to call him within us. His name is the only one that contains the presence it signifies. Jesus is the Risen One, and whoever invokes the name of Jesus is welcoming the Son of God who loved him and who gave himself up for him” (CCC #2666)

 

February: The Holy Family –

The Holy Family is an earthly reflection of the Holy Trinity. By meditating on the Holy Family, we can learn the meaning of love, obedience, and true fatherhood and motherhood. We are also reminded that the family is the foundational unit of both society and the Church.

 

March: St. Joseph –

St. Joseph is the icon of God the Father: silent but active and perfectly providing for the needs of all. The Church constantly invokes the protection of St. Joseph, admonishing us to ite ad Joseph, go to Joseph.

 

April: The Blessed Sacrament –

Holy Church is the guardian of the Holy Eucharist. For two thousand years, she has guarded this treasure, administering it to the faithful and proclaiming that it is nothing less than Jesus himself. We can never be too devoted to the Blessed Sacrament or show it too much honor.

 

May: The Blessed Virgin Mary –

Our Lady has long been associated with the beauty of flowers and the coming of spring. This is fitting because she is both beautiful and the Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the life of the world. In May, the Church remembers our glorious lady with crownings and processions in her honor.

 

June: The Sacred Heart of Jesus –

The Sacred Heart of Jesus is the revelation of God’s immense love for us. It is often depicted as a fiery furnace, pierced and broken, but beating with love. The Sacred Heart is also a profound reminder of the humanity of our Lord, for his heart is not a mere symbol, but a true physical reality.

 

July: The Precious Blood –

The blood of Christ saves us from sin. It is the blood of Christ that gives us the hope of heaven. St. Paul tells us that Jesus reconciled “to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross” (Col. 1:20). Without the blood of Christ shed for us, all would be lost.

 

August: The Immaculate Heart of Mary –

The heart of Mary is a motherly heart, a heart full of love and mercy for her children. The heart of Mary is also the channel through which all the graces of God flow down to us. She is “our life, our sweetness, and our hope.”

 

September: The Seven Sorrows of Mary –

Aside from Jesus, no human being has suffered more than our Blessed Mother. In perfect obedience to the will of God, she consented to her sons torture, humiliation, and brutal executed for our salvation. As any parent knows, watching one’s child suffer is the greatest suffering of all. She still bears the sufferings of her divine Son in her heart.

 

October: The Holy Rosary –

The rosary is one of the most powerful weapons the Church possesses. We are constantly exhorted by saints, popes, and Our Lord and Our Lady themselves to pray this simple yet profound prayer. Accordingly, Mother Church has set aside a whole month to the promotion of this prayer.

 

November: The Souls in Purgatory –

The souls in purgatory are suffering a great deal, and they cannot pray for themselves. They are our brothers and sisters, and as members of the body of Christ, we must pray and offer sacrifices for those who have gone before us, asking that they may rest in the light of God’s presence.

 

December: The Immaculate Conception –

The Immaculate Conception of Mary is a profound mystery. In the Immaculate Conception, Mary was perfectly united forever to her spouse, the Holy Spirit. Their fruitful union produced a wedding of heaven and earth in the God-Man, Jesus Christ. We will meditate on these truths for all eternity.

 

Time is a Gift

The Church takes seriously the call to sanctify all things, even time. The Catholic significance of days and months is a profound reminder that our lives are finite, and that time should not be squandered. As the Psalmist said, “teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom” (Ps. 90:12). But more than anything, it reminds us that time is a gift from God, and with him and through him, all things are holy, and nothing is without meaning.

 

WE HAVE PLACED ‘HOLY DAYS’ ON LABELS AND TAPED ON THE WALL AT THE ‘HOME ALTAR’ ON ARTHUR AVENUE! WE HAVE PLACED ON THE DOOR FRAMES OF EACH ROOM (12) THE MONTHS OF THE YEAR AND HAVE A CHILD READ EACH ONE FOR ‘PLACE BASED EDUCATION DAY’ ON ARTHUR AVENUE! EACH ROOM HAS A CRUCIFIX SO ALL IS CONNECTED AND THEY LEARN HOW COMPLETELY MOTHER CHURCH CARES FOR HER HOLY SOULS ON THIS SIDE!

 

Lead, Kindly Light!