e know what is good.  A quick glance at any parking lot will tell us what kind of car is good.  Market trends and reviews can help us see the best snowmobile, boat, television, DVD player or computer to purchase.  Down to socks and even underwear, we're told what is good.  We work long hours in order to make the money to purchase those things that are good.  Sometimes we do so out of an interior emptiness.  We believe that if we have the things that advertisements tell us will bring happiness ... that we'll be happy.  Time and time again we learn that this just isn't so.  The novelty of having something new quickly wears off and we yearn for something else.

As we enter our teenage years, or even before, we learn how valuable time is.  As we try to make our way through the world we begin to budget our time.  Many of us can remember our first job and the feeling of being able to buy the things we'd like to have.  For many of us the desire to have "things" got in the way of our spending time with our families.  Sometimes Church attendance suffered as well as we chose to work during Mass times or found ourselves "too tired" to get up and go to Mass.

It's not hard to see then, how normal it seems to spend most of our time getting what we want.  We might not even notice the emptiness that comes with focusing so much on ourselves.  Many of us didn't even notice the fact that our parents were working long and hard to give us what we wanted, and with little or no thanks from us.  As our Mass attendance declines it is easy for our prayer life to suffer as well.  We can then wonder how we can obtain the happiness and peace we want so much.

The family that prays together stays together.  Just as budgeting our money is important, it is just as important that we learn to budget our time.  Statistics show a divorce rate of almost one in two for couples who don't attend Church, don't pray with one another and who marry outside the Church.  Investing an hour a week in Church attendance decreases the rate to 1 in 55.  If they pray with each other every day besides, the divorce rate is 1 in 1005.  If they use Natural Family Planning as their family planning method, no divorces have been recorded.  The investment of very little time can help us reap great rewards.  If we are not married, that investment can help our lives be more peaceful and meaningful as well.

Those who search for volunteers know that those who are the busiest are the ones most likely to help.  Those of us who claim we are "too busy" are often "too busy" arranging things to be our own way.  Sometimes we are "too busy" helping others.  As time goes on we can learn that we cannot be of real lasting help to others until we have an interior source of strength to draw from.  That comes from our relationship with God.  

esus died on the cross that we might have a life without end, that we might be forgiven and that we might have the Gifts of the Holy Spirit to help us live well each day of our lives.  We need to remember that, and remember it often.  How helpful it is when we turn to God and ask forgiveness, then begin anew.  The Sacrament of Reconciliation is a great source of healing and strength.  How helpful it is when we receive Jesus in the Holy Eucharist.  How helpful it is when we belong to a family of believers who strengthen and support us.  We are not meant to live as islands, but as those connected to one another.  God continues to call us to that oneness!  Why not c'mon back?!