Don’t take a vacation from holiness

Approaching the month of June, we all realize that, soon enough, our daily schedules will change and, hopefully, change so that we can enjoy a bit slower pace and some vacation time. By the end of May, we will have observed the graduations of many of our young people from grade school, high school and college. The “unofficial” beginning of the summer season will have arrived with the observance of Memorial Day and the weather is getting nicer.  All of this should remind us of how blessed we are by God, the One Who has given us our life and every other good thing to enjoy and use to save our immortal souls and help others do the same.
 
There are a few things that do not and should not change in our daily lives simply because the summer season has arrived. I am certain you know to what I refer: our obligation to attend and participate at Mass each Sunday and Holy Day of Obligation, our daily prayers, the regular celebration of the sacrament of penance, our performing of those good works of mercy and charity as we are able, and our practice of some form of self-denial and mortification as our health permits. In other words, there is no time in our year, in our lives, when we can “take a vacation from our first vocations” to be holy and to increase the holiness of our daily lives.
 
Depending on what we do and where we find ourselves this summer, consider this one suggestion, be faithful to Sunday and Holy Day Mass and then commit yourself to go to Mass one other day during the week. I say this because so many find such great joy, peace, consolation and love from being at Mass and uniting themselves to the priest in offering to Our Father the perfect prayer for themselves and all others. Over the course of the centuries, many of the saints of our Church have reflected on the question, “Why should I go to Mass every day?”
 
I will cite but a few of their reflections. In a revelation of Jesus to St. Gertrude the Great, she was told, “For each Mass we attend with devotion, Our Lord sends a saint to comfort us at death.”  Padre Pio, a stigmatic and saint said, “The world could exist more easily without the sun than without the Mass.”  The Curé of Ars, St. John Vianney, said, “If we knew the value of the Mass, we would die for joy.”
 
Once Saint Teresa of Avila was overwhelmed with God’s goodness and asked Our Lord, “How can I thank You?” Our Lord replied to her, “Attend one Mass.” Blessed Pope Paul VI said, “The Mass is the most perfect from of prayer.”
 
I could go on, but you get my point. At the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, we are as intimately united with God as we can be on this earth. It really is that foretaste of heaven where we will see Him as He is and face to face.
 
I close with a prayer the good Sisters taught me as a young grade school boy. I have said it at each Mass after receiving Holy Communion. “O Jesus, I believe that you are truly present in the Blessed Sacrament. Although my eyes and tongue tell me that I have received only bread, yet my faith tells me that I have received Your Body and Blood. I believe, Lord; help my unbelief. I adore You as my God and my Savior. Amen.”
 
Have a blessed and safe summer. God bless you and keep you.