Lent is a great time for your spiritual "performance review"

I am back from retreat, joyful and thankful!

If you have not recently, I recommend getting away by yourself sometime soon. We need to step out of our daily trappings to gain perspective on what is truly important in our lives. I do not mean a vacation or going to visit a friend, but alone, you in God in a spiritual setting; for a few days or just a few hours. It gives/forces you the opportunity to see your life as others and God do.

One of the hardest things for someone to do in business is a performance review. But, we all know how it is a necessary exercise if you want your employees to gain perspective and improve their work.

It is the same with a personal retreat. If you truly want to be (as Matthew Kelly says so well) "the best version of ourselves" then take the time, find the time, use the time as you would counsel your best friend to do. Take a review of your spiritual life and work to improve. It will affect all other areas of your life.

My retreat was at Gethsemani in KY. Others I know love to go to Whitehouse outside St. Louis. Look for others on line at Catholic City.

Peace be with you
TCP
All the ways of a man may be right in his own eyes,
but it is the LORD who proves hearts.
Proverbs 21:2

What do your futures say? Up, down or flat?

The stock markets are always looking to the future. Stock prices are based mostly on expectations of a company's performance in the next few years and the long term.

Of course the corporation's current situation is always part of the equation. You need to know how they are operating now in order to envision the potential growth, or contraction. The stock price becomes an average of peoples belief in the future. Although not always correct, it is usually a long-term "bet" on corporate earnings.

How does your stock rate? As Catholic Professionals we are continually assessing our own value; either to our company or the job market around us. If someone were to bet on your future as a professional would they go short or long? Don't just focus the financial future, but the positive impact you will have on your company, your profession, and the colleagues that surround you.

Wherever you side on this "futures" wager. How do you increase your stock more? As a Catholic Professional, how do you add to the value that you bring to the world in which we live, for the long-term payoff?

We must see it as just that: long term. There have been many companies and people who hit the world markets with a splash. Their value skyrockets in no time, with everyone jumping on the bandwagon to praise their strategy and their future. But, not many of these last very long. Most crash and burn, just as hard and fast as they shot up.

Our common sense knows. It is the one who does the hard work; the long, slow, and consistent details are what sets us up for the future growth. It may be boring, but these are the tenets we all know have better potential for this wager.

What are the details that, as a Catholic Professional, will give us and our world the best future? Daily readings and prayer; frequent meditation and confession; consistent Mass attendance; offering our work to God; deliberate efforts to help others genuinely, not just out of selfish gain; these are just a few of the simple, unexciting tasks that can set us up for this future growth. What we don't see is what it does for us right now. Our present world will be affected immediately.

You may see some risk in the wager. But we know the odds are on our side. The world will be a better place for us all in the if we invest our energy in the simple, consistent actions right now.

How will you invest during these troubled times?

TCP

Each must do as already determined, without sadness or compulsion,
for God loves a cheerful giver.
2 Cor 9

Today's struggle - Lessons from the Old Testament?

In hind sight we all can see the excesses of past years. All of us that were able to buy a house, 2 years ago or more, felt guaranteed that it would grow in value. Many people lived beyond their means, just because there was growth happening everywhere.

Now, I am not saying that all of us were selfish idiots with our (and others') money. But you must agree that society was encouraging a lifestyle and luxury that eventually would come back to bite.

My men's fellowship group is currently reading a book by Dr. Scott Hahn titled "A Father Who Keeps His Promises". Without going too deep (and it is deep), it recounts much of the Jewish history in the Old Testament. It reviews the various covenants that God made with his people to bring them to purity and lead others to the one, true God. He is the first person to make these stories seem relevant to the New Testament, and our world today.

The people, nation, or kingdom of Israel went through the continual cycle of blessing, sin, penance, and redemption. They would be comfortable from the Lord's bounty; begin to forget how they got there and worship false Gods; be pained for these sins through exile and slavery, etc.; and finally come back to their Father and be healed.

In our business world of late you can see the many blessings of modern society: the internet, luxury travel, comforts and efficiencies that are beyond compare. Many sins have entered and grown in these successes: pornography, distance from persons, greed and selfishness in many industries; even government. Just a few examples such as: Enron, Bernie Madoff, huge financial deficits, and the housing "bubble".

Is the current economy our penance? Are we going through a period of cleansing and healing, just as the Jews did so many times in the OT? Why couldn't we see it? Why did we not repent and right our ways before the suffering began?

God's love is ever-present now for us now, just as it was for His people thousands of years ago. But we misread and take for granted that love as they did. This suffering had to happen to focus ourselves and our professional lives on what is best for this world. No one wishes for suffering to happen, even God doesn't want us to hurt.

A famous person once said "Change only happens when the pain gets great enough". Like a loving parent he allows us to be taught in the only way we can truly learn. G.K Chesterton said "Suffering without love is worthless; Love without suffering is empty."

May we as a society learn what we must in these time of despair: to let God and the example of his Son, who suffered the ultimate price for us, be the one true mission in our lives, both personally and professionally.

In Christ

The Catholic Professional

Put away your misdeeds from before my eyes;
cease doing evil; learn to do good.
Make justice your aim: redress the wronged,
hear the orphan’s plea, defend the widow.
Isaiah 1:17

My Daily Spiritual Workout

Anyone serious about staying in physical shape must workout often. We all know that spending time daily exercising our bodies, we are better prepared to participate in our favorite activity. It could be it basketball, skiing, physical labor; any task that requires stamina and fitness. When we don't get the exercise we need, the task is more difficult if not impossible; at least performing on the level that we expect. Working out once a week or less is not enough to keep our body "in-shape".

Why is it then that we go to Mass once a week (or less) and expect our spiritual health to be "in-shape" for any circumstance we come across. On Sunday we receive a dose of prayer and reflection at the Holy Mass that is presumed to be enough to make it though the next six days. But what happens on Wednesday when your colleague asks you to do something unethical? Or when you find yourself on Friday wanting to repeat that off-color joke you got in email? Was Sunday's exercise enough to guide us to the right decision?

I don't care who you are and how strong your convictions may be. A spiritual work-out once a week does not keep us defended against the temptations of this modern world!

The best Catholic Professionals that I know have a daily practice of prayer and reflection that has become an integral part of their lives. These are people that we all know. They always seem to have the right ethical answer or carry themselves in an upright manner. How do you think they get like that? Are they just made more holy than we are by God? No, they have to work their minds, just as the high level athletes we know must work their bodies.

Try spending 15-30 minutes a day in a quiet spot, alone with God, just as most of us do with the Y. Ever since I began doing this myself, the world (and my problems with it) gets much smaller and more manageable. I began by just reading the daily Scriptures for Mass offered by the Catholic Church. You can set up a bookmark at http://www.usccb.org/nab/ . Along with the readings there are video and written reflections from multiple sources. There are so many more resources on the web you can find. Please comment with your favorite. Another one for me is Universalis.com that provides the Daily Office for priests and religious around the world.

This time every morning that I spend with our Lord has become something that I long for. The morning ritual prepares me for the day in a way that no physical workout could.

Many of you get up extra early to get to the gym or get that run in before work. Why not try the same for your mind and spirit? They will last longer than your body.

In Christ

The Catholic Professional