"The presence of God in your daily routine" with Fr. Mark Goring

on a new edition of food for life father Marc Goering looks at the presence of God in your daily routine when we're filled with the spirit we have a clarity we have God's wisdom we have a a piece of fire that the world doesn't understand the world sees this as foolishness but we see it as the wisdom and the power of God so as you may or may not know I've been away on holidays for the last couple of weeks and I find myself reestablishing my routine and it's kind of particularly challenging because I just find myself also moving into a new home before I left for my holidays I had to pack up my bedroom and my office because of the carpeting and so coming here I had nothing had to unpack everything and move into a new house buy furniture and all that type of thing I'm not complaining by the way the Lord blesses me abundantly he blesses me so much it's embarrassing but still it's kind of you know challenging but good but again I find myself reestablishing my routine now I'm the type of person I love routine like I flourish and routine I know for some people routine is kind of seen as a bad word you know so go you don't want to get stuck in a routine you know I think to myself I love my routine my routine is fun you know I look forward to my routine you know and and if someone says well my routine is boring it's not life-giving it's dull it's whatever it's like well there's only one person to blame for that that's you no other person who hasn't routine so so again for me I love routine and for me that the foundation or the resume d'etre for for routine for me is the presence of God to me the whole point of a routine is to build a structure to your day build a routine to your day so that you can be present to the presence of God God is all present and we need to be present to his presence and find delight and the Lord is always giving us gifts he's giving presents to his children who are present to his present and he's doing that all the time because he's omnipresent now a few scriptures relating to this presence of God in Matthew chapter 28 verse 20 this is the last verse of the Gospel of Matthew Jesus says and behold I am with you always even until the end of the age the Lord is with us all the time he's present all the time in Psalm 105 verse 4 the psalmist says seek his face constantly or constantly seek his presence and also in John 15 verse 5 the Lord Jesus says remain in me as I remain in you and other translation is abide in me that's father Francis Frank ovitzes favorite scripture abide in me as I abide in you just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine so neither can you unless you remain in me the Lord wants us to know that it's only when we abide in his presence when we remain in him that our lives will be fruitful that we'll catch a lot of fish like the and the gospel we heard you know you want to catch a lot of fish you need to have Jesus in the boat you need to follow his instructions and the only way you can do that is to be present to his presence listening to him watching him listening to his voice and so again a person's routine can be holy it can be fun it can be productive it can be efficient it can be purposeful you know and and the whole idea of of structuring or structuring your day in such a way that a glorifies God from the rising of the Sun to its setting that's very monastic it comes from the monastic tradition you know the monks of old and throughout the ages they've always been very intentional about being part of the rhythm of the whole cosmos because scripture says that the whole cosmos glorifies God you know the Stars and the moon and the the heavens and and the the nature and the seasons and all that they say it's all in praise of God and so to the rhythm of our day every aspect of it should glorify God so there's no part of the day that is not meant to be in God's presence purposefully glorifying God and some purpose and again in the tradition this is called the or areum every one of us should have a personal or area and again this goes to the monastic tradition and also the seminaries or areum is just a fancy way of saying schedule it comes from the Latin from from the word the hours the o.r area so if ever you're in a monastery you can if you want to look smart you can ask them so what's the Auraria I'm around here you know and they'll think boy this is impressive this guy knows that the terminology is the name given to the daily schedule of those living in a religious community and and and seminary and so again each one of us I think we should be attentive or deliberate deliberate about having a personal or areum know kind of a rhythm of life a rhythm of our day that glorifies God now I want to share with you a huge insight for me that was very freeing with regards to this and this comes from st. Seraphim of Sarov he's a russian orthodox saint a great great saint a great mystic he's kind of like the padre pio of the orthodox church just a holy holy man and i remember reading his life in his wisdom and one of his basic principles for the spiritual life for him the one of the most important extremely simple is he'd tell people goal with what works whatever work to do it in the spiritual life like whatever gives you the Lord's peace and grace and consolation and joy do those things that was st. seraphim of sarov big insight and advice for people and to him he says you know what's so simple and he compared it again he lived years ago he compared it to the to the sea merchants you know they go on her sailboats and they they've they sailed to a port and they sell their goods and then they buy more goods to sell somewhere else he says well whatever goods they buy they're gonna buy something that's gonna bring the biggest return you know if the next port everyone wants sugar you're gonna leave a lot of money for sugar you're gonna buy sugar you're not gonna buy wheat if there's tons of wheat in the next port so he goes he says go with whatever is going to give a good return and he says so to in the spiritual life like if reading the Psalms right now gives you delight and grace and consolation read the Psalms you know don't don't read something else go with what works and so same thing to with our rhythm of life sometimes we try to set up for ourselves kind of a structure that is you know maybe rigid or imposed or you know what works for someone else and say Sarah fawn was Saint Seraphim would say like don't do that discover what works for you and do that and that's one of the basic principles of having a personal or area of a rhythm of life describing what works for you what and against a Seraphim he was very specific he says go with what makes basically I'll put on my own words go with what makes you feel good spiritually you know what the Mystics call consolation or sweetness or or delight spiritual delight go with those things so again we're not saying go with whatever makes you feel good in the flesh you know like when you get home from from work you might just feel like vegging out in front of the TV for three hours well deep down spiritually that doesn't give you delight it kind of makes you feel empty and like you're wasting your time and distancing yourself from God don't do that what what can you do that will give you delight now again there might be the time to watch a little bit of TV it might be just what the doctor orders ordered but but again we need to be very intentional about seeking the grace of God and his delight I remember living in a one of our community households for the summer and there was a priest in that household and he would start every day early in the morning working in his garden and I remember as a young newly ordained priest kind of thinking well what's he doing working in the garden first thing in the morning like his companions to the Cross we're supposed to start our day or were encouraged to start our day with a holy hour before the Blessed Sacrament like everyone does that what's he doing working in the garden you know and it wasn't until later that I kind of I guess matured enough to realize like this is what works for him starting and he's a prayerful person a joyful person but for him starting his day like we're talking about 5:30 6:00 in the morning this guy's working out in the garden like that's what worked for him and I remember later when I was living in Toronto there was a period of time where I would start my morning first thing in the morning early in the morning I would go right to my desk and I do about a half an hour just a desk work you know just just to clear my desk the bills and all that kind of thing and then I'd do my holy hour and there was such a kind of a joy and it was working for me and so that's what I did so so another principle with regards to our personal or areum is we should not put ourselves under the law with whatever routine we come up with we should constantly be be tweaking and adjusting our rule of life or a personal rhythm you know sometimes a person will decide okay I'm going to honor God and I'm going to pray a decade of the Rosary every day and I'm gonna do 15 minutes of spiritual reading and you know something else and then three months later like it's not working for you anymore and a person sometimes people will come and they'll feel guilty they'll say oh I'm guilty I promised the Lord I'd pray a decade every day and now I don't really feel like doing it and I feel guilty and I said well you need to understand that it's okay it's good to freshen up your spiritual life regularly my recommendation is about every six weeks you know for 6-8 weeks freshen up your spiritual life now don't don't change your spiritual life like every two days like that's not a routine you know that's kind of scattered you know you need to stick with something but but again it's we should we should constantly be be kind of tweaking and adjusting our routine and again I'm a bit of I take this to a bit of an extreme like I'm my day like I'm always kind of finding ways to make it more efficient and more productive and and glorify God more and all of that type of thing I love it yeah I guess it's just the way I'm wired or something but anyways it's also good like are there points in your day where you don't do well you know for me the afternoon time is the most miserable time of the day I love the mornings evenings are pretty good but afternoons I joke with the guys in my house and say every afternoon I go into a deep depression you know and so I need to have a structure to my afternoon to kind of help me through the afternoon you know for some people bedtime is just a bad time you know there might be a time of laziness or procrastination or or temptation or whatever else you need to find a structure a routine to give life to give strength to that time so that it goes from being a bad time to a wonderful time you look forward to you can do that or again for some people that's right when you come home from work you're just exhausted and the first thing you want to do is reach for a beer or whatever else and just veg out and eat chips or whatever you know and you need to look at that and say how can I turn this into a routine that glorifies God that gives me grace that gives me peace and again is the very monastic you know constantly trying to to you know the the monks are like that you know the monks they they move slowly but they everything make everything beautiful with time you know they the gardens are beautiful the homes the that the monastery is beautiful and they just they work slowly but surely and make everything beautiful so so - with our lives we should make it beautiful slowly but surely so I just want to share with you components of my or areum's that I kind of find myself working on right now and this is just some of it first of all I'm trying to re-establish what I call my points of praise now again scripture says Psalm 113 verse 3 it says from the rising of the Sun to its setting let the name of the Lord be praised so we're supposed to be praising the Lord all day long so here are some different points of praise in my day as soon as I wake up you praise the Lord you don't say good God this morning you say good morning God you know and you just praise the Lord you know in the shower I always praise the Lord in the shower I pray that scripture you know I will sprinkle clean water upon you and so on when I'm shaving when I'm driving when you hop in your car start thanking the Lord start praying praising I make that a habit these points of praise throughout the day when you're laying in bed first thing you should think about is how good god is thanking him praising him and so our days should just be filled with these points of praise and these should become habitual so that when you go on your car you just naturally start thanking and praising God again from the rising of the Sun to its setting the name of the Lord is to be praised second component of Meyer areum is what I call my pillars or kind of my meat my main mealtimes in the spiritual life so again each one of us part of one of the pillars of our day should be some kind of a daily prayer time you know for me for my community it's a holy hour before the Blessed Sacrament I do that every day it's my lifeline you know I don't I don't like to let a single day go by where I don't do a holy hour also Mass also spiritual reading a chunk of time for spiritual reading last year I wasn't I was my schedule is too full I wasn't able to find time for spiritual reading too regularly this year I do hope to find some time number three is what I call snacking on God's Word and on sacred scripture a monk once told my brother I have a brother priest Mike he told my brother he says you should be reading all the time constantly read God's Word or sacred writings to be constantly filling your mind with good things a basic principle in the spiritual life is you if you want to get bad thoughts out of your mind just fill your mind with good thoughts so I like to have I like to have a little book on the go in my room on my desk in my car it kind of everywhere I am so that if I have a moment just just just to kind of think or whatever I'll pick up the book and I'll read a quote and I like to do that throughout the day to just be constantly feeding myself with God's God's Word and Psalm 1 it says happy those who do not follow the counsel of the wicked nor go the way of sinners nor sit in the company of scoffers rather the law of the Lord is their joy God's law they study day and night no we should we should all be constant learners you know just constantly trying to learn more about God's Word and his wisdom and all of that type of thing in proverbs chapter 4 verse 7 it says the beginning of wisdom is get wisdom at the cost of all you have get understanding and we're talking about the lord's wisdom you know it's so good to just constantly be filling our minds with good things you know in galatians chapter 5 verse 16 st. Paul says I say then live by the spirit and you will certainly not gratify the desires of the flesh you know if we struggle with weakness and desires of the flesh and all that type of thing well if we're constantly filling our life with good things we're a lot less likely to turn to to bad things to find consolation in our life so again the the basic principle is we need to be present to the lord's presence all day long from when the Sun rises to when it sets and when we do this and again the Saints the Mystics talk about this we experience this mysterious joy this this delight this peace that the world doesn't know in Luke chapter 24 verse 32 that the two disciples on the road to Emmaus they then they said to each other were not our hearts burning within us while Jesus spoke to us on the way and opened the scriptures to us and again the Mystics speak about this this warmth of the heart that that each one of us is meant to experience if we're in the presence of God if we're feeding on his word if we're finding delight in him he gives us this this this warmth this this delight in our hearts you know in Ephesians chapter 5 verse 18 st. Paul says do not get drunk on wine but be filled with the spirit you know when we're when we're living in the spirit it's kind of like being a little tipsy all day it's true and it's not just me that came up without the Fathers of the Church talk about that and in scripture scripture one of the images images for the Spirit is wine and inebriation a kind of a delight a lesser fare a joyfulness a lack of fear a lack of worry I want a desire to love everybody that's the spirit the Lord wants us to be filled with that spirit it's kind of like you know one example a kind of a negative similarity is people who smoke I don't want to offend anyone who smokes although tonight I'm gonna pray for freedom for people who smoke who want it but anyways you know some people you know they wake up in the morning and the first sin he doesn't need a smoke you know and then after breakfast he and another smoker then in the car they need to smoke in there their day is filled with with a cigarette and a cigarette and a cigarette and a cigarette and a cigarette and and that's kind of they're what sustains them you know it's kind of what keeps them peaceful and calm and feeling alright well it should be the similar thing with with God's presence you know I need to because I need another infilling of the Lord's grace his presences his his his his his word has power in all of those kind of things and again when we're filled with the spirit we have a clarity we have God's wisdom we have a peace of fire that the world doesn't understand the world sees this as foolishness but we see it as the wisdom and the power of God we see it as the truth that saves and again the people who live in a spirit like they're happy they're joyful and the Lord wants each one of us to have this and so I encourage you to to look at your own lives and and think about those monks and think about your day and ask yourself like is it structured in a way that's working for me is it a structured in a way that's actually making me happy that's actually giving me life that's actually making me more free that's actually causing me to grow and to be joyful like is it working because if it isn't working why you're doing it try something that works and stick with whatever works like st. seraphim of sarov taught us for knotty OCD or video/dvd of the teaching by father Mark going on the presence of God in your daily routine we invite you to write to us our address is food for life box 1107 station F Toronto Ontario m4y 2 t 8 when you write ask for an audio CD or video DVD of the teaching by father Mark going on the presence of God in your daily routine on the next edition of food for life father Mark Goren looks at marriage and so often times you know and when couples do you have problems that one of the partners in a forgettable you Allred mean but you can't you can't have a healthy strong relationship when both people say hey forget about you I love me that's not what marriage is all about marriage is all about forget about me I love you you've heard the saying you are what you eat and it's quite there's a lot of truth to it the statistics show that if we make healthy food choices and healthy lifestyle choices like no smoking and exercising and eating properly we're very likely to live healthier lives I know that when I was younger I hardly eat a vegetable and and then as I got older I tried to make better choices and I never ate vegetables or salads much but as I ate them more and more I actually wanted to eat them it was something I wanted to do and those choices that I put into practice became natural choices for me well the same is true with our spiritual life we have to make right choices for our spiritual health we are called to holiness as Christians we're not called to just you know be mediocre but God's called us to holiness I think of the scripture found in 1st Peter 1:15 it says like the Holy One who called you be holy yourselves also in all your behavior because it is written you shall be holy for I am holy so it's a given that if we are to become holy we have to do the basics we need to be praying daily we need to be reading our scriptures we need to be attending Mass I mean you need to be involved in our parishes but there's also other areas of our lives that we need to take a look at it's not just those basic areas that we know that we have to follow but we need to watch for instance what we watch on television we need to be careful and make great choices I remember when I was younger and this is probably going back thirty years I gathered with a group and we'd watched this program weekly and it was sort of like a soap opera type nighttime program and I just think of the unhealthy innuendo and the promiscuity and the values that were promoted in that program that are so contrary to the standards that we're called to in the Bible as Christians that we're to adhere to so we need to make right choices about even the programming we watch or the movies we watch in theaters and I know that there's not you know there's a lot of bad stuff out there but there still some good stuff and you can make the right choices about your television programs and about the movies you watch like why is even what we read we have to be careful if we're avid readers we need to choose novels again that don't promote values that are contrary to what we believe as Christians we need to make great choices again even the music we listen to and this is a big one in our home with three teenagers almost four teenagers shortly that I have in my house I'm regularly having discussions saying look listen to the lyrics and make right choices if the music isn't good don't listen to it there's other choices I encourage my children to be well-rounded and choose a ride a variety of music not just the pop music that you hear on your regular radio station but enjoy Christian music and classical music and zydeco and all sorts of kinds of music that are fun and good to listen to just be careful about what you choose to listen to another area that we have to be careful in is our friends we can't choose our family but we can choose our friends now I know that we have to be around some people that don't share our faith like we do and we want to be a light to them but if there are relationships in our lives that are negative and pulling us away from God we need to prayerfully consider those and re-evaluate whether that's something that's good for us it's taking us away from God it's not and we need to look at that very carefully and address those issues I think of the psalmist David who wrote in Psalm 101 verse 3 and I want to read that to you he said this I will set no worthless thing before my eyes we need to make choices about what we let ourselves see and hear and what we participate in and this can lead us away from God or lead us on the path of holiness if we're good making good spiritual choices I think of the scripture first Timothy 7/8 it says this discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness for bodily discipline is only a little profit but godliness is profitable for all things since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come just like we make good sure good choices in the natural to eat the right things and exercise and you do the right things to stay healthy in the spiritual realm we need to make right choices to stay on that path that leads to God god bless you we would like to thank you for your financial support of the food for life television ministry Food for Life is funded only by viewers like yourself we have no commercial sponsors your tax-deductible donations help pay for production of the program pay the television station for the time that the program is on the air and pay for the mailing of our monthly newsletter thank you again for your support of this Catholic television ministry for an audio CD or video DVD of today's ministry we invite you to write to us when you write mention the program number fourteen hundred and eighty and today's topic father Mark going on the presence of God in your daily routine food for life is a non-profit Catholic charity funded only by donations from viewers to help us continue this Catholic television ministry please send your tax-deductible donation to food for life box 1107 station F Toronto Ontario m4y to d8 you may now make your donation online just go to our website and follow the link on the next edition of food for life father Marc Goering looks at marriage and so oftentimes the only when couples do have problems that one of the partners saying hey forget about you I'll have me but you can't you can't have a healthy strong relationship when both people say hey forget about you I love me that's not what marriage is all about marriage is all about forget about me I love you for an audio CD or video DVD of the teaching by father mark going on the presence of God in your daily routine we invite you to write to us our address is food for life box 1107 station F Toronto Ontario M 4 y 2 T 8

Channel: Food for Life TV Ministry

Views: 27,157

Rating: 4.901082 out of 5

Keywords: God, Catholic, Food for Life, Fr. Mark Goring, Daily routine

Id: 5XszDfnBVlU

Length: 29min 50sec (1790 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 26 2013