 I could have titled this, Preparing for the Eternal Rest, but I was afraid nobody would come because nobody's really wanting to go to heaven just yet, right? You know that joke, right? You ask people, you know, who wants to go to heaven? Who wants to go to heaven? Everybody raised their hand, right? Who wants to go to heaven? Oh, come on, fellas. Who wants to go to heaven? Yeah, who wants to go right now? See, that's, oh, it's the seminarians. They're all pumped from yesterday. They are ready to go to heaven. As opposed to your parish, I guess, I don't know. So, yes, I'm gonna speak to you fellas, and again, I was asked to give a particular presentation on the importance of rest, and so that's what I aim to do. Let's give a little presentation on the importance of rest, but what do we really mean by that? So anyway, we have a priest who comes to our retreat house in Dixon, and when he approaches the podium with one book, that's a good sign, because the homily will be, you know, 40 minutes. When he comes with five, we just kinda sit back and pull out the popcorn almost, I mean, because it's gonna be a long time, so I only brought three books with me. One is the scripture and one is another book that I'm gonna recommend to you, and my apologies to Ellis in the bookstore because I didn't put it on the list, so it might not be there. So I wanna start with a passage that is familiar to you. Perhaps you have preached on it often. It's from Luke's Gospel, and this is a story of Martha and Mary. And I ask you just to be attentive to that and listen to it and kinda put your imagination into what's really going on between these two dear sisters. In the course of their journey, he came to a village and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. She had a sister called Mary who sat down at the Lord's feet and listened to him. Now Martha, who was distracted with all the serving, came to him and said, "'Lord, Lord, do you not care that my sister "'is leading me to do all the serving all by myself? "'Please, tell her to help me.' But the Lord answered, "'Martha, Martha, you worry and fret about so many things, "'and yet, few are needed, indeed, only one. "'It is Mary who has chosen the better part, "'and it is not to be taken from her.'" Now I'm not Dr. Bergsmann, I won't pretend to be, so I'm not gonna do a scriptural exegesis on that. I'm simply using it as an introduction to my presentation because I actually am Martha and Mary. What Father did, it didn't get into the bio and it has become perhaps the most important thing of my bio is that I serve at our retreat house in Tennessee. Now, is anybody here from Tennessee? I've been looking for my fellows, but then I remembered they're all being changed. Are you from Tennessee? Knoxville, oh, see. Absolutely, and they're doing a great job, aren't they? And that's why your pastor isn't worried because our sisters are in your school. I'm not in your school, but they are. Yeah, so I serve at our retreat house in Tennessee, which in particular, I'm in a place called Dix in Tennessee, which is right between Bucksnort, I kid you not, and Bell Meade. So our retreat house is called appropriately Bethany because Bethany is where the Lord would go to be refreshed, to be renewed, to be loved on and cared for by Martha and Mary. And this is our property, and that's what I manage, which is why I was in my pity party two years ago when there was nobody there but me, myself and I. Oh, and then St. Joseph sent my fellows, and so now it's all really, really wonderful. So we love to have priests come to our retreat house. As a matter of fact, I think it's what it's for, really. We originally had the idea that it would be a place for the sisters because we also need ongoing formation and retreats, and in the summertime, that's where we go. We used to go a long way away and spent two days on the road, and by the gift of Gail and Tom Benson, right, Houdet, Go Saints, they sponsored most of this building, the largest part of it. But Tom, he said, I want sisters you to open up to many people, not just your sisters. So open it up to lay people and open it up to priests. And so we love when priests come and make their private retreat, because we do kind of feel like Martha and Mary taking care of Jesus, and it's really lovely. And the fellows who come, they do leave. You can see it on them, so refreshed. But I haven't seen any of you fellows there, and I'm wondering, where are you going for your retreats? I mean, maybe you go to the Benedictines. There's some nice ones out there, and there's some nice Franciscans, yeah? Just a few great Benedictines, yeah, yeah, yeah, and Carmelites, I mean, there's lots of different people, but I'm a little preferential to our Bethany, and I really would love for you to come. But I'm also worried, fathers, that perhaps, perhaps, just perhaps, you are Martha, Martha, that you might not be taking care of yourselves the way you really need to, physically, emotionally, spiritually, psychologically, that just as the Lord said to Martha, only one thing is needed, one thing is necessary, and Mary has chosen the better part, which is to sit and to rest in my presence and my love, that perhaps, you fellows might not be doing that enough. Might not be doing that enough. A dear priest friend of mine once lamented to me that his parochial vicar confused PV with PT, like part-time, right? So he went to the other extreme and only sat at the Lord's feet and never quite got into it. It's the struggle, right? Some of you thought that was really funny, and I suppose it's because you have that experience, right? You're doing it all! And where is he? Making another holy hour. Anyway. So I guess the point of my talk really is to try to convince you, yes, to walk away from the administrative work of your parish at appropriate times and go fishing, but I'm not talking about just taking a vacation, okay? I'm talking about investing in your vocation, your primary vocation that Dr. Burgs must spoke so beautifully and movingly about, which is to be the bridegroom of your church, your vocation to be so deeply in tune with the Father and the Father's love for you that the veil between you and God is just so transparent. Father Dave spoke about that. It isn't always for reaching out there and trying to grasp for God. It's being able to find him in those quiet places within your soul, and that's not easy. And that's why the Lord had to say to Martha, Martha, Martha, take a deep breath. I'm here, I'm here, can you sense that? Can you experience that? Can you relish that and can you rest in that for a moment? The challenges, of course, is that there are so many things that you have to do, right? So many things, parish council, finance board, your school board, finances, schools, finance of schools, it's a mess. And the priests who come, and I have a blessing to minister to, they share that. It was so hard to get away, sister. Gosh, it was so hard to get away, you know? I'm in the car and they're pulling on my elbow. And I'm so glad that I came. It's true, you have a lot going on and it's hard to invest in yourself. It's hard to invest in your spiritual life, your physical health, your psychological peace when everybody's grabbing at you. It's not unlike the Lord, right? I mean, he tries to go away and everybody finds him. Lord, how'd you get here? We're still hungry. It's a delicate balance. To take care of yourself and you not be self-indulgent. It's a delicate balance. We all know many great priests who died young of exhaustion. Charles Borromeo poured himself out. Saint Dominic at 42 had it all done. Did the order, set it all up, he's done, he's gone. Saint Paul poured himself out like a libation. They exhausted themselves. And you deacons aren't off the hook, right? Because Saint Lawrence was roasted on that rack at 32. We know that many of the saints just went out like Elijah on this burning chariot. But there's also many saints who lived to be a ripe old age and they were no less industrious. No less industrious. John Paul II, the cure of ours. What is it about your vocation that is so necessary? Well, if this was a Stephen Covey workshop, I'd start with this, put first things first, right? How many of you ever done that workshop to try to manage your day? None of you? Really? Oh, oh, father, that might be a nice thing next year. There's some practical things about Stephen Covey that can really help just manage this whole thing. I'm kind of into those practical things. But you know, Stephen Covey got that idea from St. Thomas Aquinas. He just made money off of it. Not Thomas, Stephen Covey. And it's a thing of begin with the end in mind. Any project that is worth being done, you wanna begin with the end in mind, the telos. What's the goal? What's the goal? Well, fellas, your vocation, your vocation in the church has a particular goal. It has a telos to it. It isn't to build a new church. It isn't to build a new school. I dare say that it isn't even for the new evangelization. Those are all fruits of what is the primary goal of your ordination. And that is so that you would become one who is intimately united to God. Only one thing is necessary. Only one thing is needed. That you are united to God. Your primary vocation. And from that flows your apostolate. When the apostolate, when the work gets in front of the Lord, we have problems. I have problems. You have problems. And what I love about working with this kind of group, I mean, the seminarians kinda know it, but they really don't yet. Some of them have crashed and burned in their particular ways. But really, you fellas have tasted that. Amen? You've tasted the push, push, push, crash. If you haven't, you haven't pushed yet. Again, my priest friend, he says, you know, this new guy, all he talks about is being burnt out. He hasn't even been set on fire yet. But those of us who really want to do something for the Lord, we tend to push, push, push, and then crash. But the goal is really union with Christ and to put first things first. It's not a matter, fellas, of balancing work and rest, but integrating, becoming a person of integrity, integrating your identity as a child of God, as a man of God, as a priest of God, a deacon of God, integrating that. Who am I as I stand before the Lord? How do I stay faithful to the odd extra work in my apostolate while maintaining that particular odd intra delight of the Lord's presence? What this presentation is trying to get you to reflect on. So that what moves out is always from what is moving within. Because what's moving within your soul, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit is your dynamism for anything that you will do out. Amen. Oh, it's too early. Amen. Amen. Yeah, you better be convicted of that. Come on, St. Catherine, you better be convicted of that. I promise my talk this morning will be a little more gentle, but I'm gonna say it one more time. You will be a disaster and you will find all kinds of ways to satisfy the mess that's going on because you really don't understand what the problem is. You go after the distractions because you're not at peace. You're not settled. You're not in touch with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit who dwells within your soul. Fellas, he's not out there. He's within, he's within. And so what I'd like to do is just help you to enter into that rest in an appropriate way using a little book that I read by Rabbi Heschel. Have any of you seen this book, The Sabbath, or read the book, The Sabbath, by Rabbi Abraham Heschel? Oh, there's 10 copies in the bookstore. You could leave early and go get it before anybody else does and I won't notice, but. Oh, I really recommend that you pick this book up, Fellas, I truly do. Because what Rabbi Heschel does is he really takes us into this understanding of rest, a biblical understanding of rest. And I don't think until you are able to enter into that profound mystery of God's rest, will you be truly effective in your work as a priest, as a deacon. So I'm gonna offer just a few insights that struck me and then offer a few reflections on it, but I'll leave the quote up there because you may see something else, okay? Anyway, so here we go. So the first insight that I'd like to offer to you by Rabbi Heschel has to do with the meaning of the Sabbath and he writes, the meaning of the Sabbath is to celebrate time. It's a day in which we are called upon to share in what is eternal in time, to turn from the results of creation, to the mystery of creation, from the world of creation, to the creation of the world. Now consider for a moment, what we mean by time, right? Time began with creation. The philosophical definition of time is the passing, the change, the corruption of being, material things. That's kind of, Biothea says that, but what Heschel was saying is like, let's go back to God creating because when he created, that's when time began. But why did God create? What is the fundamental purpose of this world around us? Of the bricks and the mortar at your parish? All the things that are around us, what is that purpose? God created this world for only one reason to create a creature in his image that he could be in communion with. And you needed a place to live, you needed food to eat, water to drink. Yes, so when we reflect on creation right, when we go fishing, and delight in the world's creation appropriately, we should be drawn to reflect on the creator who made this world that I may know him, delight in him, be in relationship with him. God is an eternal exchange of love, the Catechism tells us. Paragraph 221, those of you taking notes. God is an eternal exchange of love and he's destined us to share in that love. He's destined us to share in that love. That's why you were created, it's your fundamental vocation. Rabbi Heschel continues, he who wants to enter into the holiness of the day must lay down the profanity of the clutter. And that's what I mean by coming away, come to Bethany, leave the parish, leave it all there, come away physically, step away physically from the clutter of your life so that you could begin to taste this reality of rest, God, his love. My first talk was on addictions, which we all have. In his holy hour, father mentioned phones, and I may have too, but the sense of, I've got to have technology with me all the time and I've got to always be checking it. It's clutter, it's clutter. And I happen to think there might be a little bit, now again, I'm not, I mean, I make beds and I sweep floors, so it's a little blissful, I don't even have a phone, so it can be a little easy for me to just say, guys, put it down, right? And seem unpractical. But I do know priests who are diligent and disciplined about that. The times that they just won't touch it. And what is that? Because they're trying to bring their body into a place of detachment. And why is that? Because they're trying to speak to the Lord, they're trying to be with the Lord. They're trying to remove the clutter so they can rest with the Lord. Father, Father, you are busy about many things. Only one is necessary, communion with God. Again, Rabbi Heschel writes, according to the Stagright Aristotle, we need relaxation. We need relaxation because we cannot work continuously. That screen is supposed to be black, it's not your imagination. I want you listening to me for a minute. We need relaxation because we cannot work continuously. Relaxation, Heschel says, then is not an end, it's for the sake of activity, for the sake of gaining strength for new efforts. But this is not the biblical view. Be transformed by a renew of your mind, St. Paul says. Challenges. This is not the biblical view of rest. This is not what God had intended. Take a break so that you can be more effective in the apostolate. No. The Sabbath is not for the sake of the weekday. The weekday is for the sake of the Sabbath. The Sabbath is not an interloop with the climax of living. It's what you're made for. The rest is details. You are made for eternal rest. You are made to rest in God. Fellows, you were created to rest in God. Amen. Amen. Claim that please. Claim that. Be convicted of it. It's the climax of your existence. God is an eternal exchange of love. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And He's destined you to share in that exchange. But if you never find time in your day, in your week, in your life to relish in that, to delight in that, you will lose a taste for that. You will lose a taste and a longing to rest in Him. Examine your conscience. How often do you waste time with God every day, every week, once a month, every year? How often do you just sit and rest in Him? I spoke to the seminarians yesterday about how our Mother Mary unties certain knots in their masculinity that has been affected by Satan. And one of the things that I think they resonated with, I think, fellas, you were like, hey, that is the sense of God created you, kind of according to the theology of the body, in an odd extra pose. So you're designed to be working, doing, active. And Satan gets that all messed up. To where you find your comfort, you find your identity in what you're doing all the time. And what our Mother Mary needs to do in your life, in your manhood, is to create within you a space to be receptive. John Paul II speaks about it as an active receptivity, as our Lady, wasn't passive. It was an intentional, I want to dispose myself to the power of the Holy Spirit, come upon me, change me, move me, free me, fill me. How much time do you waste just being in God's presence? Rabbi Heschel asks the question, where can the likeness of God be found? Where can we find God in this world? I mentioned creation, catechism speaks about that. We can see God's fingerprints in creation in the human person, but I love this. He says that the likeness of God is found in time, which is eternity in disguise. Now I'm not sure I fully get into that. It's quite profound. And this book is, I mean, it's a book you're gonna chew on, take it on retreat, come to Bethany. We've got five copies just for the taking. Like we leave them out there now for people. Just come on down, we'll take care of you. But what he says about this is, there is not a quality that space has in common with the essence of God. So even the vastness of the universe can't compare to the expansiveness of God, right? You follow that? Even the tallest mountain is not glorious enough to compare to the glory of God. You with me? But this thing about time, which has a particular element to it that is elusive, quite put your hands around it, can you? You really can't. You can't bottle it. I don't care what Jim Croci says. You can't bottle time. Oh, you aren't as old as I thought you were. You can't bottle time. Time is that there's an elusiveness to it. There is a movement about it. There's an ethereal quality about it, really. A passing that can go unnoticed. That's where I think God is in that aspect of the here and the transcendent. What is today? What is tomorrow? What was yesterday? But an ebb and flow of God's presence in the world. In your life. What time is? If you have the eyes to see it, it isn't just one more birthday, one more conference, one more Sunday. Every moment of your breath is an ebb and flow of God's presence coming to you. Being with you. Filling you. Loving you. We go from grace to grace. From glory to glory. It's why in the Psalms, and sometimes I don't quote this always correctly, but there's a Psalm. If any of you were a good Baptist, you can tell me which one this was. But it's a sense of the cedars by the stream. Even as they grow old, they're still refreshed, still renewed. And I think about that, my sister's in the infirmary. There's a lightness about them. There's a sparkle in their eye. 80, 90. Smurgeon was 102 when she died. 102. And at her 100th birthday, we all gathered around her and had a celebration. I mean, come on, she's 100 years old, who's not gonna celebrate. And I remember mother leaning over and saying, Sister Mary Jean, what's it like to be 100? And she says, I don't know, I just got started. It's amazing, these women are amazing. They're amazing. I live with two previous mother generals and previous president of the college, and they are mature in their religion. And there is their energy and their devotion. It's just, there's such a lightness about them. It's just a joy to be with them. And if you come to Bethany, you can enjoy them too. I'm just, time, time has an eternal dimension where God is a thousand days or like a day, the psalmist tells us. And I think this is what happens in authentic liturgy. I was gonna say good liturgy, but I don't like that. Just authentic, that you really understand why you're there to worship the eternal. And as Dr. Berg's most spoke last night, Father Dr. Berg's more, yeah, what the heck. The sense of coming with joy to the liturgy, coming with joy to the altar, that's not more hype. That's not more hype. That's just you, you being at peace and filled with the spirit while you're there. It just, it comes right out of you, comes right out of you. So the book that I didn't give to Ellis, that's not in your, in the bookstore, which unfortunately I didn't get in time, because I didn't read it in time, to be honest with you. I mean, all the sisters have, many of the sisters have read it, but I didn't get to it in time to really work it into this presentation fully, but I'm gonna recommend it to you. It's by Father Wilfred Stinnison. Anybody know his name? Wilfred Stinnison. This book, where's my camera? It's called Eternity in the midst of Time. Eternity in the midst of Time. And what he does in the book, and it's small enough for you to take on retreat, we have a few copies at, thank you. Okay, so I just wanna share with you a few quotes from this chapter. It's called The Eternal Pulses in the midst of Time. I love that image. The eternal pulse in the midst of time, right? Like the beating of your heart. There's a beating of God within your soul right now as you are here in this room on this day at this hour. There's an eternal pulse within you. And he begins by asking the question, what is eternity? What is eternity? And he says eternity is not unlimited time. It's not unlimited time because we think of time as we think of it as time without a beginning or an end. That God lives and reigns from eternity to eternity. There's no border either to the left or to the right. But he says, if we understand God's eternity in that way, we actually make him very small. Time means change and development to live in time then means to become, but God is. God is. And there's almost no way that our finite intellect can really grasp the fullness of that meaning. God is. But it's critical for us to be there. Why? When St. John says God is love, and he speaks of his essence and his existence, God is love. That fullness of that reality is what he's offering to us at every breath we take. It isn't just that God will love you, has loved you. He only has one way of moving to you and to me. And it's with this fullness of being, he is love. Now maybe that concept isn't quite translating to the fullness I really wanted to. So let me just shut up for a minute and let you just sit there, okay? Just sit there for a second. God is love. This is the eternity that he's gonna welcome you into, that he's died and rose to bring you into. But fellas, that's not just when you die. We don't want to get trapped into the eternal rest, right? I'm gonna, when I die, I will rest. Eternity begins now for you as you rest in the presence of the one who is. But if you never carve out moments to do that, if you never allow yourself to because someone who can receive, be still, you won't have a taste for that. And you will be wasting your time in the wrong way. St. Catherine of Siena said, all the way to heaven is heaven. Because he is the way, all the way to heaven is heaven because he is the way. It's precisely because God is eternal that he is so serene, so peaceful. And when you encounter him, when you make that, well, that so subtle journey within to be with him, fellas, that's where your peace and your serenity comes from. Well, forgive me, all hell is breaking loose. In the world, in your parish, in your life, all of that is details. All of it is detail. All of it is external. The one thing is necessary to be able to rest and delight in his eternal love. One of the most beloved Psalms is number 23, the Good Shepherd. And Rabbi Heschel, he has something to say about this as well. He identifies Psalm 23 with the Sabbath rest. And he says, the essence of a good life is manuha, manuha, taken from Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He leads me besides the still waters, excuse me. He makes me lie down in green pastures and he leads me besides still waters, the waters of manuha. And then he continues, Rabbi Heschel, he says, in the latter times of the Hebrew culture in their language, manuha became a synonym for the life of the world to come, eternal life. So in the Psalm 23, this image is such, this beautiful, evocative image of the Good Shepherd leading us to green pastures, leading besides still waters, the waters of manuha. It is a taste of that eternal place of serenity and peace. So many times our frenetic busyness, ours, mine, yours, is the result of attempts to make things happen and usually the way we want them to happen. So we want things to be a certain way and so we can't trust our Proko Vicar or we can't trust the secretary or we can't trust, but we're gonna do it ourselves. We're just gonna do it all. Renounce that. That's a control issue that needs to be broken. It's an addiction, needs to be broken, and it strikes at the very heart of the virtue of hope and faith. He's either a good God or he's not. And he's, and he's, yeah. I mean, and if he's good, he's either good sometimes or all the time and he's good all the time. And so you coming to this place of rest is letting go and trusting him. John the 23rd's great quote, "'Your church, Lord, I'm going to bed. It's your church, I'm going to bed. I'm not God, you are." Do you ever say that, fellas, to yourself or out loud? If you start feeling yourself grasping, anxious, kind of a little too managing things, you need to stop right there. Stop, drop, and pray, because the fire's on. Stop, drop, and pray. Put your hands up and admit it. I'm not God, you are, and I'll let you be. Your church, Lord, I'm going fishing. I'm going fishing. And so, yes, there are times you're just to come away. You turn the phone off, turn it all off. Just be, physically, right? And what happens in these moments when you step away intentionally and you really surrender yourself over to a timelessness? You know, there's nobody calling you. There's no schedule. The priests come to our retreat house and they're like, sisters, what time do you wanna have mass? I'm like, father, it's your retreat. What time do you wanna have mass? You're a pure gift for us to be here. No, what do you need? What time's breakfast when you get up? And I really mean that. And we drop everything for that so they can taste that timelessness. Nobody's calling me, nobody's after me. I don't have to look at my schedule. We have blackout curtains. They don't even know what time the sun comes up. And we have no roosters. So, the good shepherd wants to take care of you, fellas. He wants to take care of you. He's such a good loving shepherd. And he really does want to pull you away to those restful waters. You can just be at peace and begin to taste that eternal love. You are so beloved to him. And yes, we have said it and we mean it. We do need you to be holy. We do need you to be saints. But not for a practical reason. I don't wanna get into that. I just, you were created to know the fullness of his love, to delight in the fullness of that peace and that joy. That's why I made you. It's your fundamental vocation. And you have to be intentional about getting there. Jesus has appointed you and anointed you to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim comfort to the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom for those who are in prisoners. That's what our retreat, this whole conference, was about. Taken from Isaiah 61, he has anointed you. He has appointed you. He does have work for us to do, absolutely. But if that's not from inside out, it's just not gonna work. It's not gonna work. And you'll become a grumpy old man, known some. There should be something light about you, something peaceful, something joyful, something serene, as Dr. Bursma spoke about last night, all those fruits of the Holy Spirit. And those don't happen by accident. There's an intentionality about it. You discipline yourself, right? You manage some things that are happening in your life. So I wanna talk about your wife, your mother-in-law and your kids. Now I got this from one of our priest friends, Father Tex. He's the brother of one of our sisters and I love Father Tex, and yes, he's from Texas. And he used to refer to as Brevy as his wife and as Planner as his mother-in-law. Deacons, it's a good thing your wives aren't here. Could you really know what that feels like, right? So your wife, right? Being faithful to your wife. It's an obligation that has been asked of you to pray the liturgy of the hours. And they call it the divine office, they call it the duty, but this is not what the Lord is wanting. The liturgy is God's work. As Father was speaking when we were praising, it's singing, holy, holy, holy. Right now, the host of angels and the saints, the seraphim, cherubim, the principalities and dominions, they're all praising God at this moment. There's a heavenly worship happening right now all the time. Liturgy is our entering into that. It's already happening. You're not making it happen in on the altar. It's part of the problem we have sometimes with our liturgy. We're gonna make this happen. No, you're not, it's happening. You're gonna enter into it. You're gonna enter into it. When you pray the liturgy of the hours, that's what you're doing all throughout the day, right? You're allowing yourself physically to enter into this heavenly worship. It isn't just something you do or you have to do because that's not gonna give you life. Kiss your wife, love your wife, embrace your wife, learn to enjoy to be with your wife. Take that book. I know some of you have it on your phone and I don't know, I'll let Father Dave deal with that. I wouldn't do it, I wouldn't do it. Have your book, let it be well-worn because at different times in your life those psalms are going to say something new to you and you wanna make a note in there, right? It's not a big deal to carry in a backpack that's got your wife and your mother-in-law in it. Right, don't use your phone. You can't keep the record of your spiritual journey on a phone but your office book you can. I have all kinds of little notes in there. Years when a particular passage said something to me and a particular grace came to me and I go back to it. When one of our sisters dies her office book is handed down to a young sister. It's a great thing. So be faithful to your wife and love her. Oh, sorry, one more thing about the kids and I know I've got the two minute like it's time and I'm not a bishop so they might yank me off but I got two more slides Father, I promise, two more. Are you guys okay? Can I just do these last two? Okay, okay, your mother-in-law. Your mother-in-law. Okay, so gentlemen, you can't afford to let your mother-in-law rule your life. Amen? Amen. So there it is, you have a schedule, you have work to do, you must be faithful. Don't be afraid of being like St. Dominic and St. Paul being poured out like a libation because when you got the fire of the Holy Spirit within you, there it goes. But look at your schedule and where do you have written in there, God? Mass doesn't count, that's not your prayer time. You're the bridegroom, taking care of your bride, right? You're time to receive him. It needs to be in your schedule, in your personal schedule. Write it in there and be faithful to it. Father, father, one thing is necessary and Mary has chosen the better part. Maybe your parochial vicar has chosen the better part because he's fresh with a love to be with God. And don't take that away from him. Teach him how to manage it, but don't take it away. All right, so to be honest, Father Tex never talked about the kids, but I suppose the kids are your parish, right? They're all the people in your parish, the good, the bad, the ugly. And so it's true, I have spent 40, 50, actually 53 and a half minutes trying to convince you to pull away from it all and take a rest, which you do need to cultivate a taste for eternity. If you never put your body in a place of repose, your soul will not be able to do that. Amen? Don't let that go. That being said, you're fishing and everybody comes looking for you. Father, father, we need you. And there you were in your moment of prayer. Fellas, if you learn to integrate this eternal pulse with your work, it's just who you are, you will be able to rise from that moment of repose when they're all saying, they're hungry, we need something, the boiler went out again, the internet's down, you'll be able to say, let the little children come to me, do not hinder them, for such belongs the kingdom of God. The bridegroom speaks and his nuptial homily, John 15, nine, remain in me as I remain in you, remain in me, rest in me. As I so want to rest in you, take time, fellas, to pull away, to step away, a week, a day, an hour, just take a moment now, find where he abides and rest there. In the name of the Father and of the Son, the Holy Spirit, amen. Oh Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we praise you, we bless you, we adore you. We rest in you, you have created us to know this eternal rest and to begin to taste that right now, let us remain in you as you remain in us.