Time to re-focus our attention on our faith

With the coming of the month of September and the Labor Day civil holiday, the unofficial end to summer occurs. It seems that this month is a combination of nostalgia and anticipation, and both are good. Our daily lives and schedules become full of work, school and other activities and, as we get busy, we tend to look back to the months of summer with a bit of nostalgia, longing for that change of pace.

However, as our lives and schedules become busy, we also look to the future with a sense of anticipation of what we will accomplish at work or in school. We want to have a certain stability in our daily lives which will help us accomplish and complete our tasks. This is where our faith is so essential to our daily lives.

If we take our faith seriously enough to allow it to govern our daily lives, it will certainly do so by God’s grace. Our faith will give us stability in our thoughts, words and actions which will allow us to accomplish our tasks and, most importantly, it will assist us in fostering greater virtue. Our faith is the constant on which we can depend in all the events of our daily lives.

I think we know this to be true, but it is not something which we often think about from day to day. Let me propose to you that our faith is the thing we should be thinking about every day if we want to advance in virtue and if we want to get to heaven. The best way to keep our faith and its strength and vitality first is to commit to daily prayer at home, daily Mass to start the day, and the performing of one of the corporal or spiritual works of mercy each day.

The month of September is the month to focus our attention on our faith. In the middle of the month, September 14, we celebrate the feast of the Exaltation of the Most Holy Cross. We cannot forget that it is the Passion, Death and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus that enlivens and strengthens our faith. It is by His Holy Cross that He has redeemed the world and given to us as the reason for our faith.

Let us resolve that this month of September will be the time for us to take special care of our faith, God’s gift to us to live now in gratitude for His blessings, and to live now looking to the reward of faith well-lived—heaven.