Summary
Katie talks about how we can manage our busyness and be more constantly at peace and in line with Christ in our everyday lives.
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Reflective Study Guide Questions
“Remember that you are never alone. Christ is with you on your journey every day of your lives!”
St. John Paul II
1. Katie shares that what happens within us will make its way out for others to see and experience — whether that’s peace because of our time spent in prayer and ordering our life well, or whether that’s chaos because we’re so busy doing one thing after the next. Have you ever noticed that in your own life or others?
2. In order to do what the Lord wants us to do in our lives, we need to spend more time in Him. How has your time spent in prayer been fruitful in the past? How did that time with the Lord help you? What might come out of spending more time with the Lord in prayer this Lent?
3. Is there anything in particular that gets in the way of your peace and sense of calm during Lent? If so, what is it? What can you do about it?
4. Katie explains that when we seek Jesus, there is peace in our hearts. So, wherever you are in your prayer life, challenge yourself to take it one step up. For example, you could add some prayer time to your day, go to daily Mass, fast or incorporate some other devotional to your day. Has there been something that’s been on your heart that maybe the Lord is hoping you’ll pick up and try this Lent?
Text: Trading Busyness for the Peace of Christ
Hi, my name is Katie Sciba. And the first thing that we’re going to cover is busy-ness. So much can get in the way of us having real, genuine peace. And what happens in here, within us, will happen out there, will come out.
The Antidote for Busyness
So, Luke 6:45 says, “from the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.” So, what happens within us will make its way out for others to see and experience. When we are busy, especially with all of this preparation, our to-do lists are crazy long, and sometimes they’re not even like, hard-copy lists. Sometimes our lists are just in our head, which makes us even crazier. And we have just less rest. And that’s so overwhelming. I’m a minimalist. I love living simply in the freedom that it offers. It is incredible. And so, when it comes to surface stuff, I typically tell people to look at what needs to be done and do that. And then, let go of the rest, or at least what you can let go of. Take a look at what you consider really needs to happen and just cut out the rest. Or spend your time doing what needs to happen, fulfill your obligations, and then if you have time and energy for more, then do it. But that’s with the surface stuff, right? The antidote for this busy-ness, this like, fretting, is calm; it’s calm. What we need is more Jesus in order to have more peace.
A Story from Saint Teresa of Calcutta
I love the story. It’s attributed to Saint Teresa of Calcutta. And it’s a story of her sisters came to her and they were overwhelmed by their workload. There were just not enough hours in the day and they weren’t getting everything done that they wanted to. And they went to her and they said, we’re just, there’s just too much. We’re overwhelmed. We’re not getting everything done. And she said, okay, two hours of adoration then. She doubled their Holy hour. Now for anyone else that would, might make them panic. Like, no, I need to spend more time doing my work. I don’t need more time resting. But isn’t it so true though? That in order to do what the Lord wants us to do, we need more time with Him.
Clean Your Heart
So, the point is that union with God yields peace. Union with God yields peace, and we have union with God when we frequent the sacraments, we go to mass, go to confession. That’s so important. If you really want to prepare your heart, then I strongly encourage you to go to confession, and just create a clean heart within yourself. Ask the Lord to make yourself clean, to make room for Him. When we offer time just an individual prayer, in the course of our days.
And a lot of people say like, well, I’m busy. Like, I don’t have time to pray. If you’re too busy to pray, then you’re too busy. And that’s honestly, that’s kind of, it’s hard to say because it’s hard for me to hear. And I realize that there are so many things that I fill my hours with that honestly, are not necessary. What is necessary is that I am in touch with my heavenly Father. We’re made in the image and likeness of God. Right? So that means that in order to be more ourselves, in order to give more of ourselves, in order to be in touch with who we really are, we have to be in contact with the source of our lives. And that will yield incredible peace.
It Just Takes Five Minutes
So, everyone has five minutes. Everyone has five minutes during the course of your day. You can attach it to a meal and say, you know, at five minutes before I start dinner, I’m going to pray. Or five minutes before the kids wake up, or whatever it is, or five minutes, the first five minutes of my commute to work, I’m going to pray. And we offer just a little bit of time. I don’t know how busy Mary was, but when it comes to them being like panicked, or fretting over something, I think of when she and Joseph lost Jesus when he was 12. And they’re traveling for three days, everything’s great. And they look around. Where’d he go? They thought he was with relatives. He wasn’t. So where did they find the Prince of Peace? In his Father’s house. So panic, panic, panic. Searching for our Lord. And then they found Him with the Father. And so that can happen with us. But there’s so much going on in our minds, with our to-do lists, all of that. But when we seek Jesus, when we look to the Father, when we unite ourselves with our heavenly Father, there is peace. Now, that might not shorten your to-do list, but union with the Father will yield more ability to do what He wills us to do, with what He asks us to do. So that is my challenge. When it comes to busy-ness and all of the stuff that clouds our minds, clouds our time and our schedule, I want you to take where you are in your prayer life and go one step further. Just one step.
You Can Always Improve Your Prayer Life
So, let’s say you’re not doing anything right now in your prayer life. So, what I want you to do is to begin your day with a Glory Be. Say a Glory Be in the morning at some point. So that will orient you to knowing that our lives, our time, in this day, is meant to be for the glory of the Lord. If you are rocking it, and you’ve got 30 minutes of personal prayer every day, and you’re praying rosaries, and you’re going to daily mass, that’s fantastic. Add fasting. Scripture says that there are some things that cannot be overcome except by fasting. Fasting is a very powerful prayer. So, take where you are and go one step further. One step further. Saint Therese said that prayer is a launching out of the heart toward God. Launching out of the heart, which means that we can be real with Jesus. We can be honest because that is what He desires. He desires us right where we are, the raw versions of ourselves. We present that to Him. And He will meet us there.
About Katie Sciba
Katie Sciba is a national speaker, retreat writer, and six-time Catholic Press Award-winning columnist. She holds a degree in theology from Benedictine College, and her work on Catholic minimalism, spiritual intimacy with Jesus, as well as marriage and family has impacted audiences nationwide. Katie writes for Cincinnati’s Catholic Telegraph and has been featured on several podcasts and radio shows. Her humor and honesty enable her to connect well with a crowd.
At home, Katie homeschools her children and plays an active part in her husband’s small business. She and Andrew live with their family in Omaha, Nebraska.
