SANTIAGO, Chile, SEPT. 30, 2008 (Zenit.org).- The financial crisis under way in the United States should remind us that the human person must be at the center of the economy, says the president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.Cardinal Renato Martino affirmed this in a press conference during a visit he is making to Chile through Wednesday.

“The economic crisis, which is manifested throughout the world, perhaps is a sign that the world is not made up only of bills, money and the economy. […] [The crisis] serves as a reminder that the human person must be put at the center of the whole of world economy,” he said, as reported by the Chilean episcopal conference.

Cardinal Martino went on to note some of the problems he considers among the greatest facing humanity today, including the situation of human mobility, and the 200 million people who are seeking work, shelter or a better economic situation.

The prelate also addressed the problem of access to water, an issue expected to grow increasingly complicated in the coming years.

“The right to water is a fundamental human right that is part of the right to life, which is made up of several rights, such as the right to food, work and water. That is why water cannot be an element that is privatized; it must be available to all,” he stressed.

Integral perspective

After the press conference, Cardinal Martino met with Chilean bishops to reflect on the relationship between evangelization and social doctrine, “which is not something peripheral or accidental in the evangelizing mission of the Church.”

“Social pastoral care is a right and duty of the Church that is based on theological premises,” he noted. “It is because of this that the integral vision of the human person must never be lacking in the praxis of Christians in society, in any of its realms: the realm of work, economy, politics, culture, of efforts to build peace.”

Social structures, the Vatican official affirmed, “must always consider the truth about man that the Church — with all her doctrine — proclaims, teaches and defends.”

Cardinal Martino clarified the key role of pastors in spreading the social doctrine of the Church.

“If leadership in directly transforming social, economic and political realities according to God’s plan corresponds to the laity,” he explained, “to we pastors and priests corresponds a very delicate and not less exacting commitment, namely, to satisfy laypeople’s right to be formed and enlightened by the social doctrine of the Church, to be supported in forging a solid spirituality and to be encouraged by the closeness of their pastors.”

“Only in this way will they be able to fulfill with evangelical effectiveness their daily commitments in the world,” Cardinal Martino affirmed. “This support is still insufficient in many places.”

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Please add your comments below:

By Mirko Testa

ROME, SEPT. 30, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Politics needs Christianity and it is therefore totally legitimate for believers to participate in the public square, says Benedict XVI’s secretary of state.

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone affirmed this today in Rome when he spoke at a conference titled “The Century of Beliefs,” on the occasion of a presentation of the latest issue of the review “Aspenia,” an international political quarterly from the Aspen Institute Italia.In response to the question on the relation of politics and religion in the global era, Cardinal Bertone said that in the review’s various articles he detected “a certain convergence on the fact that, in the era of globalization, politics and the market aren’t everything; they are a means, not an end.”

“I have never agreed with those who hold that politics is useless, because it promises to build bridges even where there is no river. Instead, I am convinced that politics is necessary, but I believe that, to communicate genuine values, it must respect the ‘bridge’ that unites each of these values with God,” he explained.

The cardinal said that without God, politics begins to lose the ability to respect law and recognize the common good.

This is confirmed by “the tragic end of all political ideologies” and even by the “present financial crisis,” the Vatican official said. “Wherever one’s own benefit is sought in the short term, virtually identifying that with the good, one ends up by canceling one’s own benefit.”

Secular ethics

Cardinal Bertone acknowledged that a secular ethics does exist, that is, one that is not linked to transcendence. He said that such an ethics “deserves attention and respect as it often contributes to the common good.” However, the cardinal continued, without being inspired in transcendence, it runs the risk of failing by “being increasingly exposed to human frailties and doubt.”

In that regard, Cardinal Bertone noted that in modern times, the inviolable rights of the person are proclaimed with particular emphasis. Nevertheless, in reality, these rights are often tragically denied.

Moreover, “in the present multi-ethnic and multi-confessional societies, religions constitutes an important factor of cohesion, and the Christian religion in particular, with its universalism, invites to dialogue, to openness and to harmonious collaboration.” It is far from being the “opium of the people,” he added.

According to Cardinal Bertone, in order “to direct globalization, politics not only needs an ethics inspired in religion, but a religion that is rational. Because of this, politics also needs Christianity.”

Human nature

Therefore, the cardinal stressed that it is “totally legitimate” for Christians “to participate in the public debate. If not, theist and religious arguments and reasoning could not be invoked publicly in a democratic and liberal society, while rationalist and secular arguments could be invoked — clearly violating the principle of equality and reciprocity, which is at the base of the concept of political justice.”

However, Cardinal Bertone clarified, Christianity promotes values that do not need to be labeled “Catholic” and thus held only by a certain few. Instead, he said, “the truth of these values lies in their correspondence with the nature of man and, hence, with his truth and dignity.”

Therefore, “those who uphold them do not seek to establish a confessional regime, but are simply conscious of the fact that legality finds its ultimate root in morality.” And this morality, the cardinal clarified, cannot fail to respect human nature.

From this derives the “non-negotiable” character of principles, which “does not depend on the Church” but is based on human nature itself.

In light of this, the frequency of the Church’s interventions in defense of non-negotiable values “must not be interpreted as undue influence in a realm that is not her own,” but as “an aid in developing a correct and enlightened conscience […] a conscience that is more free and responsible.”

“The Church does not seek applause or popularity, because Christ sent her to the world ‘to serve’ and not ‘to be served,’” the cardinal concluded. “She does not wish to ‘win at all costs’ but to ‘convince,’ or at least to ‘alert’ the faithful and all people of good will about the risks that man runs when he moves away from the truth about himself.”

by Matthew Kelly

Just before her death Joan of Arc wrote, “I know this now. Every man gives his life for what he believes. Every woman gives her life for what she believes. Sometimes people believe in little or nothing, and yet they give their lives to that little or nothing. One life is all we have and we live it as we believe in living it and then it’s gone. But to surrender what you are and to live without belief is more terrible than dying - even more terrible than dying young.”

The events of September 11 lead me to ask you this question: What are you willing to give your life for? There are two ways to interpret the question, but I am not asking you what are willing to die for… I am wondering, what are you willing to live for? What are you willing to give your life for? Not in death and martyrdom, but in life by lending the moments of your life to some great cause.

On September 11 we learned a lesson that history has taught us many times before. The most powerful people in history are those who are willing to give everything. The nineteen hijackers were willing to give everything to complete their mission. On both sides of the fence of good and evil, in every age the most powerful agents of change are those people willing to give all their time, effort, and energy without reserve to the cause they deem worthy of their lives. We saw this in the hijackers and we saw this in Hitler, but we also saw it in Mother Teresa, Francis of Assisi, Ignatius of Loyola and countless other heroic men and women throughout history who have given their lives to the service of God, humanity, and the Gospel. The question I ask again is: What are you willing to give your life for?

Perhaps a better place to start is with the question: What are you giving your life to? When you assess the way you spend your days and your weeks, what are you contributing your time, efforts, and energy towards?

As a teenager I used to play a lot of golf at a club not too far from where we lived. I remember how some men used to spend their whole lives at the golf club. There were one or two in particular whose whole lives seemed to revolve around the life of the club. They would play, but they were also on the board, and from time to time I would even see them working in the gardens that surrounded the first tee… pulling weeds or trimming bushes. Even as a child I remember thinking that there must be something lacking for them to spend their lives this way. But I suppose we all need something to live for, and for them it was the golf club.

The events of September 11 heighten my awareness of how brief and precious our time here on earth is. These events help me to treasure my own life more and more with each passing day. But they also challenge me to reassess the ways I am spending the time, effort, and energies that are my life. I am more intimately aware than ever before that we all waste life. Sometimes we waste a day here and day there. We waste some days caught up in unforgiveness and we waste other days immersed in frivolous and irresponsible activities.

Life is passing us by. Life is wonderful, brief, and yet, filled with unimaginable potential. Within each of us there is a light. It is the light of God and when it shines it reflects not only the wonder of God, but also the greatness of the human spirit. I pray that in the light of recent events we don’t become discouraged and fearful, but rather that we turn our focus to nurturing that light within us. I pray that we allow it to be nourished and grow. Darkness has one enemy that it can never defeat - light. Darkness cannot survive in the presence of light. Let your light shine. As we reflect on our brief and precious lives, let us also remember that they are but a transition to a long and blissful eternity. Teresa of Avila reminds us, “Remember you have only one soul; that you have one death to die; that you have only one life, which is short and has to be lived by you alone; and there is only one glory, which is eternal. If you do this, there will be a great many things about which you care nothing.”

There’s something more powerful than political rhetoric blowing across the nation these days, and it may just have a greater impact on our culture than one might at first imagine.

What is it?  Prayer.

Simple, strategic, committed prayer, organized by local citizens in more than 170 locations, in 45 states — from Alabama and Massachusetts, throughout the East, South and Midwest, to California, the Northwest, Alaska, Hawaii, and locations in American Samoa and Canada.

This unprecedented, well-organized prayer campaign, called “40 Days for Life” (www.40daysforLife.org),  launched on Wednesday,  September 24, and will end an intentional 40 days later, on the Sunday prior to the U.S. national election.

A clear and focused mission

The mission of the 40 Days for Life campaign is “to bring together the body of Christ in a spirit of unity during a focused 40-day campaign of prayer, fasting, and peaceful activism, with the purpose of repentance, to seek God’s favor to turn hearts and minds from a culture of death to a culture of life, thus bringing an end to abortion in America.”

Forty days were chosen as the intense time period for fasting, prayer and peaceful vigils in front of more than 170 designated abortion clinics in order to echo the number 40 recorded throughout Holy Scriptures as the time period used by God for repentance, transformation and preparing people for executing his work — from Noah, to Moses, to Christ’s fasting and desert retreat before he began his preaching ministry, to the Apostles after the Cruxifixion.

Prior results

David Bereit, national campaign director of the 40 Days says that two previous campaigns, much smaller in participation size,  resulted in two abortion facilities closing,   more than 514 babies saved from being aborted, and five abortion clinic workers leaving the industry specifically because of the peaceful prayers outside their clinics for 40 days.

“Despite the increasingly shrill rhetoric of the abortion industry, the simple truth is that business is off,” says Bereit. “Abortion numbers have dropped so significantly that several states are now down to only one or two remaining abortion centers,” he said. “This fall’s 40 Days for Life campaign presents a great opportunity to finish the life-saving work in these states, creating abortion-free zones and encouraging other states to follow suit.”

Expected outcome

“The most important result we hope for is that each of us who are involved grow in holiness during the campaign. That is more important than any immediate result,” adds Bereit, in an interview with Zenit news. “…we want our nation to turn back to God, and that is going to start through each one of us. It will begin through our faithfulness, through our personal growth in holiness. Personally, I have never had the degree of spiritual growth like I experienced during my first 40 Days for Life. “

In the same interview, Bereit underscores that the number of participants in this year’s campaign far exceeds previous campaigns and they exhibit a level of passion and commitment to restoring a culture of life that is unlike any he has seen before.

“This is the year, 2008, when the death toll from abortion has crossed the 50 million mark.  This is the year when the abortion provider Planned Parenthood crossed the billion dollar mark in revenues, over $336 million of that coming from American taxpayers,” Bereit points out.

“After 35 years, if abortion were a good thing, it would be settled in the minds of the people.  But …abortion has not been a good thing.  It has not done any good for women, and it has certainly been destructive to the lives of the 50 million children that have been lost.”

“There is no more important time in our nation’s history than right now,” Bereit emphasizes, “for people to pray, to fast, and to put their faith into action.  We will be able to do big, big things because we have a big, big God who can do all things.”

Ora et Labora

“Ora et Labora — prayer and action — are our most powerful tools in the battle against the abortion culture. The 40 Days for Life program combines the two beautifully, with the potential of bringing down the culture of death,” notes Joe Scheidler, national director of the Pro-Life Action League
“Compassionate, dedicated pro-life Christians praying fervently for 40 days and 40 nights, 24 hours a day, at the very places where abortions are performed, is an ardent call for God to work miracles as He pleases….I believe it is absolutely necessary for ultimate victory over the evil of abortion, and I believe the time is right.”

“Abortion will end when local communities say it will end — no sooner, and no later,” explains Fr. Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life and pastoral director of Silent No More Awareness Campaign and Rachel’s Vineyard Ministries.  “We have the power to stop abortion, even while it remains legal.

“Now is the time to mobilize, sustained by prayer,” Fr. Pavone continues,  “Women and men who have lost children to abortion need to hear the witness of others who have experienced that pain and have found healing. 40 Days for Life is an opportunity for a local community to hear that witness. ”

Norma McCorvey, the former “Roe” of the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court case,  who made national headlines more than 10 years ago when she denounced her stand on abortion, and who is now president of Crossing Over Ministries,  echoed others saying,  “I hope and I pray deep in my heart that you will join us in this 40 days of prayer and fasting and help us overturn Roe v. Wade, because we didn’t have a choice in the beginning with the Supreme Court justices — they decided it for us.”

How to participate

Anyone can participate in this campaign.  The core components are simple:  (1) commit to daily fasting and prayer from now through election day, with the intention of ending abortion in this country and reversing the culture of death into a culture of Life,  and (2) participate in a prayer vigil at a designated abortion clinic if you are able to do so.  Just go to the website www.40daysforlife.org.

More things are wrought through prayer…

Imagine the impact if Catholic business professionals nationwide —without fanfare, but simply and humbly— joined in this nationwide prayer effort,and help spread the word through our actions!  We at the Catholic Business Journal are participating.

As Lord Alfred Tennyson summed up so well years ago,  and as Fr. Patrick Peyton echoed in his Rosary crusades of a few decades ago:  “More things are wrought through prayer than this world dreams of.”

Servant leadership

“Years from now in the history books,” says Bereit, “there is going to be a chapter about abortion, and about how this great injustice ultimately ended. As with every great injustice, such as segregation or slavery, or any other injustice in America and throughout the world, all of them eventually fell or will fall.

“Abortion will eventually fall. When it does, and when the history books are written, our children and our grandchildren are going to be reading about how abortion ended.

“I believe that they are going to be reading about the year 2008, “continues Bereit, “and how this year was the beginning of the end of abortion. We will have to answer to them what we did or did not do during this crucial time in American history.

“I believe that the faithful, God’s people, who are willing to pray and fast, who are willing to hold peaceful vigil, who are willing to spread the pro-life message, and do anything they can to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, I believe that we will be able to tell our children and grandchildren, “I did everything that I could possibly do. I was willing to do the things that needed to be done in order to end abortion.”

“It is the legacy that we are going to be known for. People will look back at us and will measure us by how we met this great evil, this great injustice. Abortion will be in the history books. The question is what role will we have played in bringing it down? That’s the message I really want to get across to people.

“Ultimately of course, “ concludes Bereit, “we live with the desire that when we each arrive in our heavenly home, we want to eventually hear those words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

For more information, go to www.40daysforlife.com.

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As this campaign continues through these next 40 days,  please share your experiences and insights on the Catholic Business Journal comment section below ….

by Fred Ruopp, Sr.

U.S. ECONOMY
An economy characterized by constrained credit and a retrenching consumer continues to weigh on growth.  Although GDP growth was positive into the third quarter, much of this could be attributed to the tax rebates of the spring.  It is noteworthy that even with this stimulus adding 10.5% in annualized disposable income growth in the second quarter, real spending grew at less than 1%.

Meanwhile, no sign of a bottom in housing prices has emerged as weak incomes (ex government stimulus) and the limited availability of mortgages hold prices down.  Not until these two factors reverse can we begin to clear out the inventory of unsold homes and see prices stabilize and climb.

INTERNATIONAL
The dollar continues to gain against the Euro and the Pound - currently selling in the 1.45 to 1 area against the Euro.  The dollar is also gaining against the Japanese yen.  Some emerging market currencies, notably China’s, are continuing to gain against the dollar.  With worldwide materials demand coming off somewhat, material-oriented economies such as Brazil find for the first time in some while that the dollar is gaining against their local currencies.  While it is clear that the U.S., Europe and Japanese economies are currently cooling off somewhat, it is not at all clear whether this will extend to China.  China, now that the Olympics are over, is making great efforts to re-stimulate her economy and most particularly in the areas around the Olympic cities which had been shut down in the interest of clean air.

ENERGY
Crude oil is settling back after having for the first time in history passed $100 a barrel only in April, and vaulting to $147 in July.  With slower-paced U.S., European and Japanese economies and perhaps some slower pace in the emerging world led by China and India as well, world demand has come down somewhat.

Crude oil and natural gas, unlike other materials, are in short supply relative to average worldwide demand at this point in time.  There is additional land for planting grain crops, there are more trees to be cut for lumber, and there are substantial amounts of copper ore in the world.  But oil is increasingly found only in places like deep water drilling offshore Brazil, Ghana, the Gulf of Mexico and the Canadian tar sands where average recovery cost is now in the $70 to $80 a barrel area.  This means that should the price of crude world-wide fall to or below $80, many planned additions to the world oil supply to replace oil which is being pumped everyday will necessarily be suspended, thereby reducing world supply.

In addition, the OPEC nations have announced a cut back in production of 500,000 barrels a day.  All the OPEC countries have had big spending programs and some countries like Dubai and Abu Dhabi have strung themselves out on enormous infrastructure building programs.  Most of OPEC cannot afford to have oil go back to the $50 - $60 a barrel level and therefore strenuous efforts will be made in terms of reducing output if necessary.

For some weeks now, hedge fund operators and other speculators who came late to the purchase of energy stocks and commodities are now liquidating those hastily bought holdings.  This has put short-term pressure on the price of energy stocks and commodities and that may continue for some weeks.  We would think at some point in the next month or two such forced liquidations would be behind us and prices will return to values based on underlying economic fundamentals.

In any event, were oil to sell at $80 a barrel, the oil, natural gas and oil service companies would still be enormously profitable.  Prices of these stocks are at or below where they were when oil was selling at $80 to $90 earlier this year.  Accordingly, we believe adequate representation in the energy sector is a viable long-term position for long-term capital gains production.

FIXED INCOME
U.S. Treasury yields continue to move lower as investors around the world once again look to dollar-denominated prime issues for safety, this in spite of some concern about monetary inflation.

The government’s move to stem a large portion of the credit melt down by taking control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is welcomed.  The two organizations have been placed in conservatorship backed up by government guarantee of their debt financing.  The stockholders will in all likelihood not fair so well as most of the equity has evaporated.

We continue to employ a risk-averse strategy consisting of U. S. government agency bonds offering about 4% for a 5-year maturity, or U.S. corporate bonds yielding a bit more.  The tax-exempt municipal market continues to offer value to investors paying the full tax rate.  As of this moment the ratings remain solid.

STOCK MARKET
Equity market declines have begun to broaden out beyond the housing, financial and consumer discretionary sectors as estimates of corporate earnings in general are cut.  It is worth noting that year-to-September 18, 2008 Wall Street has outperformed most global equity indices (London FTSE -22%, Hang Seng -34%, Nikkei -24%) in terms of both local and common currencies.  This suggests that the U.S. is probably further along in de-leveraging economic excesses and also reflects more reasonable valuations.

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New in our bookstore:  7 Steps to Becoming Financially Free, by Phil Lehnihan

  Before I began my RCIA classes in the Fall of 2006, I studied the Catholic faith in earnest.  I tend to intellectualize everything and my first thoughts were to learn everything I could about our faith.  I quickly realized there was more to our wonderful Faith than knowledge, history and tradition!  I then began to focus on being the best Catholic I could be and started on my true faith journey, versus simply immersing myself in books.  One of the biggest obstacles for me in those days was my lack of prayer life.  I knew I needed to pray, but I couldn’t ever remember sincerely praying about anything.  I was struggling with the typical male challenge of asking for help, especially asking God for help!  Who was I to bother Him with my petty problems?

I went to one of our Deacons, shared my prayer challenges with him and asked for guidance.  He looked at me with some amusement and said I was approaching prayer in the wrong way.  “Don’t worry about asking for help just yet,” he said. “Simply go to the Lord with thanks and be grateful for the blessings in your life.”

Eventually, I learned to ask God for help and guidance, but my prayer life started by offering thanks to Him. The light bulb went off and I finally got it!  I now understood that my faith journey would never grow unless I had an active prayer life.  This was the beginning of my prayer journey that has continued to unfold and grow with each passing day.  I would like to share with you the stages of my prayer journey as a Catholic, lessons I have learned and insights into how I pray in hopes you will find my experiences to be helpful.

Stage One of my prayer life was learning to thank God and be grateful.  Going to Him in prayer and reflecting on the blessings and burdens in my life every day is how I learned to appreciate and acknowledge the Lord’s role in my life.  To this day I never start a prayer without thanking Him.

Stage Two for me was learning to ask for forgiveness.  I go to reconciliation frequently, but it is still important for me to ask the Lord for his pardon and forgiveness when I commit a sin-which is more frequent than I care to admit!  It has become a daily Examination of Conscience for me to reflect on where I have failed Him and ask for forgiveness and the grace to not commit that sin again.

Stage Three was asking for His help and guidance.  This stage of prayer is also when I also learned to pray for others and their needs.  I think men in general struggle with asking for help and I am no exception.  My growing prayer life and deepening faith journey has given me the humility to realize that I don’t have all the answers and that Jesus absolutely wants to help me.  Early on I would tentatively ask for help with the BIG stuff like getting my family into Heaven, blessing our Priests and Deacons, giving our government leaders wisdom and so on.  Now, I am very comfortable asking for His help and guidance in every facet of my life.  But, first I had to gain the humility to recognize that without our Lord I am nothing and I need His strength.

Stage Four in my prayer journey has been learning to completely unburden myself to the Lord. This has occurred only in the last several months.  I have always been inclined to carry my stress, frustrations, worries and fears like a secret weight around my neck.  As I got better at asking the Lord for help, I began asking for His help to lighten these mental and emotional burdens.  I am so grateful that I now can go to Him and absolutely give Him whatever is weighing me down, from work stress, to concern about my children’s future.  Whatever it is, I share it with Jesus as he asked us to in Matthew 11:28-29, “Come to me, all you who are weary and find life burdensome, and I will refresh you. Take my yoke upon your shoulders and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart. Your souls will find rest, for my yoke is easy and my burden light.”

I am confident that there will be more and evolving stages of prayer growth for me if I am humble and focused on deepening my relationship with Christ.  St. Teresa of Avila wrote frequently on the stages of prayer, especially in her book The Interior Castle.  I hope to reach the contemplative and mystical prayer life she describes in her works and pray that Jesus will lead me there.

Some important lessons I have learned (and keep learning!) in my prayer life and would like to share include:

• Make time for prayer-just do it!  If you don’t schedule prayer time and stick to it, it will not happen.  Starting the day with prayer is often best and it builds slowly from there. Ask yourself if you would be willing to spend only 30 minutes a day with your loved ones.  Hopefully the answer is a resounding NO!  Ok, then why do we struggle to give the Lord at least 30 minutes a day in prayer?  How you do it is not nearly as important as the act of doing it!

• Have the proper disposition before praying.  It is important to have the right attitudes of humility and faith that God can and will help us before we start praying.  Reading scripture or a book of meditations such as In Conversation With God or Imitation of Christ every day before prayer will help prepare our heads and hearts to approach the Lord in a deeper and more meaningful way.

• Work through the “dry patches.”  We all experience dryness in our prayers or have trouble focusing.  We may feel that God is not listening.  We may fall into the trap of asking God to validate what we want instead of submitting to His will.  I am certain that you will experience this, but keep at it!  Mother Teresa’s book revealed decades of dryness and despair in her prayer life and yet she persevered!

• Eucharistic Adoration is a gift. We are so fortunate to have perpetual Eucharistic Adoration in our parish.  Going before the Blessed Sacrament and having quiet prayer time in the presence of Christ often energizes you and becomes a catalyst for dramatically growing your prayer life.

• Practice more listening and less talking in prayer.  Adoration is the perfect place to listen to the Lord in complete silence.  We are often so busy talking that we fail to hear Him which detracts from our quality prayer time.

We can’t grow our Faith Journey without growing our Prayer Life!  We simply will not grow our relationship with Christ unless we do so through prayer.  According to the Catechism (2744): Prayer is the lifeblood of your faith. Without prayer, your faith will die.

Practical Insights

Finally, I would like to share some insights on how I pray in hopes that it will inspire you and help you deepen your own prayer lives:

• I start every day by reading the Bible or the Magnificat and the scripture for the Mass that day. I then read In Conversation With God by Francis Fernandez and reflect on the meditation it contains and how it applies to my life.  I follow with prayer and offer the day up to God.

• I have been a Eucharistic Guardian since January of 2007 and this is the best hour of my week.  No matter what is happening in my life, I can come into the True presence of Christ and open up to Him in prayer.  It is absolutely uplifting and energizing and a great way to start my day.

• I started praying the Rosary just three weeks ago and typically pray it on my way to work or while on the treadmill.  I put praying the Rosary off for so long, but it is becoming a critical part of my prayer life and a true blessing. This goes hand in hand with my ever deepening love and appreciation for Mary and asking for her intercession and prayers.

• The Daily Examen, developed by the Jesuits, is a critical part of my daily routine.  Basically, we are asked to stop five times throughout the day for a few minutes of reflection and prayer.  Each stopping point has a specific purpose such as the Prayer of Thanksgiving, Praying for Insight, Praying that you will find God in all things that day, Praying for your desires and what you seek from God and finally a Prayer about the Future and what you will resolve to do tomorrow.  It is best to actually put these 5-minute blocks on your calendar throughout the day so you will be reminded.

• Pray at every meal-public and private.  It is important for us be thankful and acknowledge Christ and ask for His blessing.

• My wife and I pray with our children every night.  It is important for them to develop their own prayer lives, but they see our example and we also grow by sharing our prayer lives with them.

Brothers and sisters, I certainly don’t have all the answers and I am no expert on prayer.  I simply want to share with you as someone who struggles with the same issues and obstacles, that my prayer life and my faith journey have grown together.  I didn’t have any kind of prayer life just three years ago and now I couldn’t imagine living a life without one.  To me prayer is anytime that I turn my attention to God and away from myself alone.  It can be accomplished in a variety of ways and acts.  Feeling worthy or inspired is not a great barometer for measuring our prayer life.  Praying for….the desire for prayer is worthwhile and a good start.  I hope this proves helpful and I promise to pray for all of you and would humbly ask that you pray for me and my family.  Thanks and God bless you.

I remember as if it were yesterday my first serious attempts at prayer. At the time I was eighteen and in college. Prompted by a friend I began spending ten minutes a day in the silence and solitude of my local church. The grace I felt at that time of my life cannot be put into words. The joy that filled my heart during those brief minutes of prayer flooded my whole day.

But as the weeks and months began to pass the feeling wasn’t the same and I was challenged to value prayer for more than the feelings born from the experience. It was only then that prayer grew into a discipline.

In those early months I went through the many struggles we all experience in prayer: distraction, disinterest, restlessness, denial, and rejection of that voice deep within. Over time the discipline began to take root and I became more and more comfortable with the silence and with myself.

The silence that had once terrified me had now become a great friend. And that friend, silence, promised to introduce me to myself and to God. Seeing ourselves as we really are for the first time is horrifying. We are not all we make ourselves out to be. Wandering into the presence of God is humbling. And yet it is precisely this knowledge of self and this knowledge of God that prepares us for the adventure of life.

Prayer is like love. At first it is easy and time passes unnoticed. Then it is a challenge because it has become familiar and there are so many new and interesting experiences to be had in the world. It is then that we must

[Find books by Matthew Kelly here ]      choose it above all these other things. And then finally, we must wait for the beloved and endure patiently the ups and the downs, the twists and the turns, the words and the silence.

It is this waiting that I wish to speak to you about today. You have turned to prayer out of desire or necessity. The world has tried to distract you from your prayer, but you have chosen to stay the path of daily participation in this mystery of reconnecting with yourself and God. And now you must wait… and wait… and wait…

You want to do what is good, true, noble, and right - the will of God - but you don’t know what he is calling you to, or asking of you. And this uncertainty is driving you crazy. How I wish I lived in some other time and culture. I long for a place where people honor uncertainty and allowed themselves to enjoy it.

In one way or another all those who seek to live in harmony with God are waiting for direction. Learn to enjoy uncertainty. It is a sign that all is well. God is your friend. Let him take care of the details. If you have food to eat and somewhere to sleep, then eat and sleep and wait on the Lord. In his own good time he will call you to perform some work. So be mindful of your prayer, and allow your soul to swell with the goodness of God. Only then will he allow the fruits of your soul to flow out and nourish others.

In my youthful impatience the words of Rainer Maria Rilke, the great 19th century German lyric poet, often come to mind. In a letter to an aspiring poet he once wrote: “I beg you, be patient towards all that is unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”

Do you find it challenging to live a balanced Christian life that unites faith, family and work?  Does your Christ-inspired faith sometimes get deflated throughout the course of everyday life?  Many of us feel overwhelmed by the obstacles we face from an increasingly agnostic media, religious-indifferent work environments, and declining family-focused values. This constant battle has worn us down to the point that we adopt distinctively different personalities for church, home and work-it is spiritually and emotionally toxic. Consequently, is it time to “upgrade” to a life where our values are aligned with our obligations?

James L. Nolan, author of Doing the Right Thing at Work, said in a recent talk to St. Peter Chanel parish: “We are in the middle of a profound sea change affecting all aspects of life: social, cultural, economic, and political.  Changes are being played out all over the world.  Prompted by the alienation and uncertainty of our age, people—now more than ever—want to find a reliable moral compass.  They want to integrate their whole selves; integrate who they are with what they do.  Some are coming to recognize a deep-seated drive within each one of us to use our talents, intelligence and imagination for the greater good.”

I think many of us want to engage in conversation that brings about change, but don’t know where to begin.  Displaying courage in the face of society’s obstacles is difficult, but perhaps we should focus our attention on manifesting small acts of bravery that are meaningful.  I don’t believe that Christ expects us to win the war by ourselves, but I do believe he expects us to be good soldiers.

Our Lord says in the Book of Matthew, “You are the salt of the earth.  You are the light of the world.  A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden.  Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.” -Matthew 5:13-14 and 16.  Letting your light shine before others is about testimony.  It is about setting a good example.  It is about standing up for what is right and wearing your values on your sleeve.  It is about the sincere public embrace of Christ.

Humbly, I propose these simple steps in Faith, Family and Work that we can follow in our daily lives to be lights for Christ, take a firm stand, and ultimately to lead a more fully-integrated life.  I hope these suggestions will bring some comfort and encouragement.

FAITH
Our faith is sometimes relegated only to Sunday mornings. We put on our “church” clothes, load up the minivan and think about where we’re going to eat afterward. But faith can easily be incorporated into our everyday lives with a few simple pauses and acknowledgements of Christ. Here are a few that I am working on:

Show humility and put Christ’s will before your own
• Glorify Christ and give him thanks for every grace and blessing.  Put Him first in your thoughts and prayers and His will is more likely to be revealed.  “The greatest among you will be your servant. All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.” -Matthew 23:11-12

Be not ashamed of the name of Christ
• Say Merry Christmas, not Seasons Greetings!  Send Christmas cards, not Holiday cards.  Say a blessing over your meals … in public.  Christ died on the cross for us; can we not stand up for him in public?
Pray every day

• Spend quiet time in prayer with the Lord to thank him and ask for his blessing and guidance.   Humbly thanking God and praying for guidance, wisdom and help is critical to our spiritual well-being.  Make time every day to read scripture and other books to more fully experience the lessons God has for us.

Selflessly invest in others
• Invest in others without an expectation of return. Make your actions serve the needs of your brothers and sisters in Christ and you will inspire others by your example.  Add this simple phrase to your conversations—“How can I help you?”

Be a good steward … in your church
• Do we give Christ and the church our time, talent and treasure?  Is our charitable giving more than a mere tax break?  Consider Christ’s observation of the Woman and the Two Coins in Mark, “He sat down opposite the treasury and observed how the crowd put money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents. Calling his disciples to himself, he said to them, ‘Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury.  For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.’” -Mark 12:41-44.  We have opportunities and an obligation to give back to our community, get involved in church ministries and support those less fortunate than us. We just need to decide then act.

Remember Christ is our Teacher and Friend
• Christ is guide, teacher and friend on our faith journey. Joe Difato writes in his article, Reading the Signs of The Times: “The good news is that God doesn’t expect us to do this all on our own. On the contrary, he is committed to teaching us and encouraging us along the way. This is, in fact, why he sent the Holy Spirit-the Third Person of the Trinity-to live in our hearts. It is the Spirit’s job to open our hearts and our minds so that we can understand everything that Jesus taught (John 14:26).

FAMILY
Time on earth with our families is precious, and we will be remembered and judged by how fully we lived that time.  Balancing faith and family means living in the moment, avoiding distractions from work, and appreciating the memories we make in the time God gives us with our loved ones. Following are some ideas to consider:

Spend time with your family, not money
• Our children look to us for love, guidance and boundaries.  Today’s “surrogate parents”—television, computers, video games are teaching them that materialism is a god worth following. It is our responsibility to show them otherwise. Lisa Hendley writes in a Catholic Exchange article titled, Spend Time With your Family, Not Money: “It’s not wrong for us to want to give our children the world. What is wrong is for us to forget that we are supposed to be the “grown ups” in the equation — the ones who teach our kids that living within our means and not being overly reliant upon debt makes sense financially, emotionally and spiritually. So next time you are struggling with balancing the family budget, remember these words of wisdom—spend time with your family, not money!”

Set a good faith example for your children
• If you want to know what kind of Christians your children will be, look in the mirror. They look to Mom and Dad and mimic our example.  If you pray, they will pray.  If you are joyful about attending church, they will be excited as well.  Discuss scripture and bible stories. Point out appropriate heroes for them among the figures of the bible or saints who have lived exemplary lives.
The family that prays together stays together

• Like many of you, this is a challenge my family is facing.  We pray before meal time and bed time with our children and I hope the meaning of what we are doing will eventually sink in. But raising children is a marathon, not a sprint. Keep at it. You will reach them.

We are here to help our family get to heaven
• As parents, we have no greater responsibility than to help get our families to heaven.  It is our mission, our vocation.  As part of leading a balanced life, we should always consider how to bring our children closer to Christ.  Simply attending church is not enough as writer George Barna (author of Transforming Children Into Spiritual Champions) said in this Catholic Exchange interview: “… the importance of families realizing that they are called to be the primary spiritual developers of their children. It is not a church’s job to develop a family’s children’s spiritually. The church is there to support the family, not to replace the family.”

WORK
Everything is so closely tied to political correctness these days that company executives are running scared. It’s simply the landscape of today’s corporate environment. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t express, and more importantly celebrate, our love of Christ in the workplace by being moral, ethical, and generally good people. Here are some thoughts that are certainly appropriate for a professional setting:

Wear your values on your sleeve
• Do people know what you stand for?  What you believe in?  Write down your values and keep them with you.  In our ambiguous world it may seem difficult to take a stand for what you believe, but your values should be your center that guides your actions and decisions.
Be a good steward … at your company

• As a complement to stewardship of faith, be a good steward of your company time, talent and treasure.  Do you and your company give back to the community?  It is the right thing to do and is ultimately good for business.  Get involved, make a difference and contribute; perhaps if you lead, your company will follow.
Set a good example for your co-workers

• Be honorable, ethical and moral in business.  Standing strong behind your beliefs in the workplace will earn you respect among colleagues and create opportunities for deeper dialogue about faith.

Make your role about serving others
• The idea of servant-leadership is not new.  Serving your clients, serving your peers, serving your community … is in essence serving Christ. Pope John Paul II said, “The purpose of a business firm is not simply to make a profit, but it is found in its very existence as a community of persons who in various ways are endeavoring to satisfy their basic needs and who form a particular group at the service of the whole society.”
See your work as a vocation
• Michael Naughton writes in his article, A Labor Day Reflection: Three Views on Work: “A vocation enables work to become more satisfying but understood not solely from the perspective of the self or even from the community, but informed by God’s grace. Work as a vocation transforms the worker and the object the worker produces by God’s grace. A vocation integrates the divine into the activity of work.”

Do the Right Thing
• It seems so basic, yet it is surprisingly challenging.  Look at Enron, WorldCom and other countless examples of poor ethical and moral behavior in companies.  Jim Nolan, author of Doing The Right Thing at Work, has outlined a five step program to guide us in the pursuit of ethics and virtue in the workplace: 1) Self awareness, 2) Expanding our horizons to include concern for all in God’s creation, 3) Engagement in our work and in our world, 4) Community and 5) Prayer.

My intent in sharing these ideas is to show how simply you can alter your life in a way that assimilates faith, family and work.  I try every day to follow these steps, and I struggle like anyone else.  The challenge is to practice them not as a bunch of new “to-dos,” but as part of a broader, unifying approach to balance and integration.

My personal story is that I converted to the Catholic Church in 2006 after 23 years in a state of “spiritual wilderness.” I was a strict separatist: my work and personal life never connected.  When I embraced Catholicism, it opened my eyes to the reality that God comes first, and my will must be subordinate to His will.  I experienced a conversion not only in my new faith and devotion to Jesus Christ, but in my world view.  I began to see for the first time the vital necessity of integrating all three areas of my life.

My hope is for everyone to undergo a true “conversion of the soul” and lead an integrated, balanced life.  It isn’t easy, but worth the journey.  I encourage you to begin tomorrow with a firm disposition to do good, practice virtue and emulate Christ. Thank God and praise His name.  Say a prayer to our Lord on your way to work asking for guidance and grace throughout the day.  Be kind to people you meet and offer assistance freely without an expectation of return. Pray for Jesus to show you that the challenges that present themselves each day are opportunities to grow in holiness and virtue.

In Phillipians 4:8 we read, “Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”  Put Christ first, and the rest will follow.

Finally, I would like to share this appropriate quote from Albert Einstein: “The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.” I pray that we all can become better Lights for Christ.  Thank you and God Bless you.

Whether fabricated or factual, times are tough financially for many people. Money is not flowing as freely as it has in the past, inventory remains high and sales are down. Whether this is a recession, a downward trend, or simply the cycle of business, most salespeople have been affected by it. The challenge of selling ethically is heightened amidst tough times. As a Christ-Centered salesperson how are you doing?

In these times of subjective truths and situational ethics, where results are more important than relationships, it is imperative that Christ-Centered salespeople remain grounded in truth. It is all too easy to succumb to the temptations of the world and place money over morals. Giving in, even partially, to the lure of easy money over ethics and morals only lubricates the slippery slope that leads to the quagmire of compromised values. Attempting to negotiate the slope of compromise makes it hard to maintain your integrity and even harder to climb out, should you happen to slip.

Salespeople are often competitive and independent by nature. Accountability is often measured only in bottom line results. Christ-Centered salespeople balance their competitiveness and independent nature with a sense of the bigger picture. They answer to a higher authority, one who is more concerned with eternal profitability then with earthly profitability. Yes, the bottom line matters to Christ-Centered salespeople, and so does the method by which those results are achieved. Tough economic times are no excuse for lowering or eliminating your standards.

In fact, tough economic times are the best time to demonstrate your commitment to high ethical standards. It’s relatively easy to have high standards when things are going well, not so much when things get tough. So, are you committed to the truth or merely interested in it? Are you a man or woman of integrity or are you a man or woman of duplicity? Are you willing to embrace the cross or run from it? The choice is yours.

As busy professionals with compounding responsibilities, isn’t it becoming more and more difficult to find time just to … think? Commiserating with colleagues and friends, we share how our work days are filled with an almost obsessed focus on getting as much work done as possible, countless meetings and squeezing every bit of air out of our schedules. In our other (and most important) roles as fathers/mothers and husbands/wives, we’re faced with another harried stretch of time each evening filled with family dinner, kid’s activities and the myriad other things that families require. Weekends are more of the same.

Clever vernacular such as “perpetual hurry syndrome” and “time poverty,” are beginning to circulate when describing this phenomenon, but I simply choose to call it alarming. We make decisions all day long, but how much of it is reactive and responding to what others throw your way? Taking time to think strategically, be creative or even pause to ponder an issue before responding is a growing challenge. The fact that many of us view time to think as a luxury is a sad indictment of the culture in which we live.

We are addicted to background “noise” and connecting with others through computer and PDA screens. I’m not opposed to technology, but recognize how I’ve allowed it to exacerbate my challenges with finding quiet time to think. What used to be a leisurely drive to work a decade ago is now crammed with phone calls … and loud music. Waiting for appointments to arrive, stops at red lights and elevator rides are now opportunities to respond with my “Crackberry” to the barrage of emails I receive daily. In an effort to become more efficient, I am sacrificing thinking time.

Research for this article uncovered these insights into our penchant for technology and predisposition for interruption:

Last year, AOL’s third annual “Email Addiction” survey revealed that email use on portable devices has nearly doubled since 2004. Findings from the company’s release include: The average email user checks mail about five times a day, and 59 percent of those with portable devices are using them to check email every time a new message arrives. Forty-three percent of email users with portable devices say they keep the device nearby when they are sleeping to listen for incoming mail.

With or without portable devices, 15 percent of Americans describe themselves as “addicted to email,” and many are even planning their vacations with email access in mind. About four in 10 email users say it is “very” or “somewhat” important to

them to think about email accessibility when they are planning a vacation, and 83 percent of email users admit to checking their mail once a day while on vacation.

The Wall Street Journal’s Sue Shellenberger writes in her article, “Multitasking Makes You Stupid, Studies Say:” A growing body of scientific research shows one of professionals’ favorite time-saving techniques—multitasking, can actually make you less efficient and, well, more stupid. Trying to do two or three things at once or in quick succession can take longer overall than doing them one at a time, and may leave you with reduced brainpower to perform each task.

From a TIME magazine article titled, “Help! I’ve Lost My Focus:” In a study of 1,000 office workers from top managers on down, Basex, an information-technology research firm, found that interruptions now consume an average of 2.1 hours a day, or 28 percent of the workday. The two hours of lost productivity included not only unimportant interruptions and distractions but also the recovery time associated with getting back on task. Estimating an average salary of $21 an hour for “knowledge workers,” Basex calculated that workplace interruptions cost the U.S. economy $588 billion a year.

A study by Sylvia Ann Hewlett and Carolyn Buck Luce published in the Harvard Business Review states: Forty-five percent of high-earning managers are too tired to converse with their spouse or partner after a long day at the office. This strain is wreaking havoc on family and personal lives.

“Crackberry” was named the 2006 Webster’s New World Collegiate Dictionary New Word of the Year.

Baroness Susan Greenfeld, well-known British author and Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Oxford, said in a World Business article titled, “How Technology is Changing the Manager’s Brain: “We’re already seeing the impact of the IT revolution on the workplace. Working on the screen is having a massive impact on the way we think and process information. The screen culture is not conducive to taking time to think—everything is instantly available. The result is iconic thinking, quick fixes and short attention spans.”

Have we relinquished much of our ability to think strategically and creatively to the onslaught of increasingly sophisticated technology? Has the technological age, which was supposed to herald a time of increased leisure, in fact enslaved us? We are almost always reacting to television, the Internet, e-mails and phone calls. This forced diet of (other people’s) information may be a necessary evil, but consider the real possibility that we have swung so far in that direction, we aren’t generating and sharing enough of our own original thought. In her book, Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World, author Dr. Margaret Wheatley writes, “The single most revolutionary act you can do these days is to find time to think.”

Time to think, time to pray, time with family, time with friends—these are the components of the fuller and richer lives we all want to lead. Work will always demand as much of our time as we allow. But is technology the real culprit? Probably not. We have the freedom to choose how we spend our time and should take this responsibility onto ourselves. Remember that technology was intended to serve us, and not the other way around.

So how do we create these respites of time we so desperately need? It’s the little things; the small steps that will help us find our “thinking time.” I’ve shared some ideas here:

Start your day on a different note
Don’t run to your computer and turn it on! Rather than checking email or reading the overnight news the moment you wake up, designate the first 20 minutes for reflection, reading, journaling or prayer. Have a cup of coffee, sit down and think about your day. Or perhaps reading or exercise stimulates your brain. Whatever it is, make it your time—it’s the one part of the day when clients aren’t calling and nobody is making demands on your schedule.

Put it on your calendar
You know the saying that if it isn’t scheduled, it will never happen? Try blocking out small windows of time each day for reflection. I borrowed an idea from the Jesuits called the Daily Examen where I schedule five-minute blocks of time throughout the day to reflect on my actions and think about the future. Schedule these time blocks around travel, meal and bed times.

Keith Conley, an EVP with Document Technologies in Atlanta, offers this insight: “In an effort to force myself to sit back and spend time on the big picture, I have found what works best for me is to schedule 90 minute blocks of open time on my calendar two times per week. This creates an opportunity to focus on business strategy, evaluate progress towards business goals and to do a reality check on how I’m spending my time.”

Introduce simplicity into your life
Try reading a book versus listening to the audio version. Spend time with good friends who will challenge you. Listen to beautiful music or watch a classic movie. Take a long walk with your spouse. Do something outside with your kids every day. Embrace their natural curiosity and be grateful they want to learn new things. Make an effort to teach them something about the world and how to think for themselves. Get some time for yourself on the weekend and make sure your spouse does as well.

Don’t feed your compulsions
As a practical measure, turn off the ‘ding’ when new email arrives. It can wait! Don’t feel compelled to answer immediately. Do the same on your PDA. Turning off the audio or LED notification and checking for emails at the appropriate time can add to your ability to concentrate in a conversation or other thinking assignments. Look at other areas that feed tendencies which negatively affect thinking time and make some simple changes.

Hold mini-retreats every quarter
Take a day off once a quarter, if not more frequently. Use this time to relax and plan. Explain to your loved ones that you need this time to collect yourself and get re-energized. The toughest challenge with a mini-retreat is to turn off your PDA and cell phone. Computers are okay if you are trying to capture your thoughts, but don’t plan on checking e-mail.

Schedule/participate in more open discussions and strategy sessions
It can be as formal as inviting your team to a meeting where you throw a problem on the white board for discussion, or as casual as inviting a few friends to lunch to debate politics. When in the presence of your team, colleagues or friends try asking thought-provoking questions. In an effort to break free from simply sharing regurgitated ideas and information, ask “Why” more often.

Regardless of how you do it, this open debate and discussion is healthy and will feed and stimulate you in important ways. And by the way … turn off the PDAs! “In meetings where everyone is checking e-mail, opportunities for collective creative energy and critical thinking are lost,” argues Nathan Zeldes, a senior engineer at Intel and a leader of the nonprofit, Information Overload Research Group.

Designate certain windows of time as “gadget free”
Choose times in the day (car rides are ideal) when all electronics are turned off, even the radio. This will take discipline, but imagine the car as your safe haven and “thought incubator.” Lori Swope, a Principal with Watson Wyatt in Atlanta, has a balance in her life that I admire. She says, “I set aside certain times of the day, not only for thinking and focusing on the people I love the most. Early morning is reserved for prayer, reading and exercise. The morning ride to school with my daughter is our time together - no Blackberries or phone calls. Dinner with my family means no interruptions or other distractions. It takes discipline, but these are my priorities. And my work is always finished!”

Surround yourself with personal advisors
Pat McNulty, former SVP of Allied Waste and president of Barton Protective Services, has found that a “personal” Board of Advisors—consisting of friends, family, colleagues, clergy, etc., can stimulate you to think, calibrate, verify and validate; provide a valuable sounding board for decision-making; ask the tough questions; and provide real inspiration. Periodic and informal “values check sessions,” give us much-needed pause.

He continues: “Learning to drive, we are taught to look in the mirrors and gauge the short distance immediately in front of the car. We’re also instructed to regularly take in the long-range, ‘big picture’ view. In everyday living, how often do we pause, breathe and take in the wider, more meaningful view?”

A good friend recently gave me a beautiful leather writing journal. This thoughtful gift has prompted much of the thinking for this article and initiated a significant change in my daily routine. I enjoy writing and used to email myself ideas or leave myself messages at work—adding to the volumes I already receive. Now, I take the journal with me everywhere and find I’m reaching for it instead of my “technology enablers.” Actually writing by hand provides me a few precious moments between appointments or in the early hours of the day to gather my thoughts on a number of topics and the process has been rejuvenating.

Dan King, Chief Administrative Officer for Allconnect in Atlanta, offers this advice for creating thinking time: “I’ve discovered that three things are needed for me to think creatively – a topic, time and place. During the course of my workweek, I keep a pad to jot down topics that require deeper thinking, business-related or personal. A couple of these topics go with me to my ‘think space,’ which happens to be a quiet café near my home, once or twice a week. This practice has made me a more valued contributor at work and what I hope is a better husband and dad.”

As many of us 40-somethings have a tendency to do, I am taking stock of what’s important and am determined to find the time I need for God, family, work and me. Dr. Ron Young, CEO of TROVE, a national leadership development and coaching firm, recently provided me with this insight: “There are many different types of thinking. In today’s competitive, adrenaline-addicted world, it is easy to fall into the trap of believing that we do not have time to think. Living on autopilot or “living on fast forward” is the quickest way to rushing into inefficiency, errors and hollow living. Research tells us that we can save between four and eight hours for every hour we invest in planning.”

He continues: “We need to make time for big-picture thinking to look beyond ourselves and gain eternal perspective. Without time to think we are unlikely to question popular thinking, to be creative or strategic. Getting outside of ourselves and the rush of our day-to-day lives allows us to reflect, think unselfishly and remember why we are here. Making time to think allow us to connect with deeper needs of meaning and belonging. It allows us to recall that we are human beings, not task-driven robots.”

In conclusion, we give the important areas of our lives our best effort when we’re calm, rested and thoughtful. We own the responsibility to make the necessary changes to give ourselves what we need. Author Dr. Margaret Wheatley also said, “Don’t expect anybody to give you the time to think. You will have to claim it for yourself. If we want our world to be different, our first act needs to be reclaiming time to think. Nothing will change for the better until we do that.” What part of your schedule will you reclaim today to get some thinking time? You read this article and I hope it made you think—that is a good start!