Dear Saints,

Even as the Northeast has earned the well-deserved reputation as a fast-paced region that never sleeps, there’s one space in which we can quietly enjoy a downshift that much of the country cannot claim: August.

While students in Florida have already returned to classrooms and schools in Indiana open their doors in just two weeks, we find ourselves with a full month of summer still unfolding before us. We would do well to fill these weeks leisurely yet purposefully, for August is a great opportunity to bring heaven’s rest to earth.

True rest is not merely the absence of pressures and work, but the presence of God. When Jesus says “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest,” he’s not talking about a temporary break from activity (fun and important as temporary breaks can be); rather, he’s offering lasting peace and freedom from worry.

One key to accepting Jesus’ offer is presence - that is, mastering the art of living in the now - a lesson August can teach us well if we let it. In his book Interior Freedom, Jaques Phillippe said: “We do not commune with God in the past or the future, but by welcoming each instant as the place where he gives himself to us. We should learn to live in each moment as sufficient to itself for God is there; and if God is there, we lack nothing.” Here in New Jersey, we’re uniquely gifted with another month to practice moment-to-moment living before morning alarms go off a little earlier and schedules get a little crazier. May we finally seek - and find - the rest we’ve been promised.

Christ’s Peace,

Father Daniel

δοῦλος Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ