1. APPOINTED TIME FOR EVERYTHING. In every action that we are called to carry out there is an appointed time. Look at your life—the months, the weeks, the days, the hours, the minutes—and examine your use of time!
2. TIME USED WELL OR WASTED? With respect to the time that God has given you, do you use your time to the very maximum to praise Him, to serve Him, to work for the salvation of your soul and the souls of others? Or are you at times lazy, indulgent, slothful, and disordered?
3. LIFE IS SHORT. You only have one life to live and as soon as you die, Judgment follows. Life is very, very short in comparison to eternity.
4. ETERNITY. Reflect on the shortness of your life compared to eternity. Saint Augustine says: “Our life in comparison with eternity is a mere blink of the eye.” Saint James says that our life is like smoke—blown by the wind and then gone! (Jas 4:14)
5. THE PSALMIST AND ETERNITY. The Psalmist offers us these short but very sobering words: “Our life on earth is like the flower of the field that rises in the morning and withers and dies as the sun goes down.” (Ps 103: 15-16) Let us meditate upon these words and Biblical passage to motivate us to order our lives and use all that God has given us to attain the salvation of our soul. Let us beg the Lord to help us to use and not abuse creation.
6. TIME, TREASURES, AND TALENTS. Another angle or perspective by which we can attain the grace of properly using creation is through alliteration— the famous 3 “T”s—proper use of our Time, Treasures, and Talents. Let us pray over this and examine our lives!
7. TIME. Go through your day. Honestly examine and humbly admit the time that you are wasting in perhaps frivolous, superficial, and useless pursuits, or possibly even in sinful activities. Call to mind the first preaching of Jesus: “Be converted for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” (Mk. 1:15)
8. TREASURES. Has God endowed you with certain treasures that you could be utilizing better? Are you hoarding? Is there some of the Dicken’s character Scrooge in you? Remember, Saint John Paul II challenges all of us to live the Law of GIFT!!! We are called to give to others all that we are and share with others all that we have. In other words, we are called to be truly a gift to humanity by our generosity. Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta put it in these words: “Give until it hurts!”
9. TALENTS. Read and Meditate on Mt. 25:14-30—Parable of the Talents. The last man, in this category of three servants endowed with talents from the Master, decided to make a hole and bury the one talent he had received, thereby receiving a sharp chastisement from the Master. In your meditation on the proper use of the goods of creation, you are challenged to analyze and examine your own personal life with great sincerity and be aware of the talents that God has so generously bestowed upon you. Following are two questions that you can bring to God, Giver of all good gifts, and pray over.
10. EXAMINATION OF MY PERSONAL TALENTS…
1) MY TALENTS! Am I aware of the many talents that God in His great love has given to me? Beg the Lord for greater knowledge and insight to discover and recognize your gifts and talents.
2) LAZINESS! Is it a sad truth that you are keenly aware of the many talents that God has given to you, but due to laziness, indolence, procrastination, putting off, or maybe even fear, these talents have never come to fruition? Now is the time to change! As Saint Paul reminds us: “Now is the day of salvation! The night is over and the day is upon us!Therefore, cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.” (Rom 13:11-12)
3) PRAY!!! Pray fervently and beg for the generosity to order the disordered, to use all the gifts you have received for the honor and glory of God and the salvation of a rich harvest of souls! For therein lies your salvation! “Remember this, whoever turns a sinner from the error of their ways will save them from death, and cover a multitude of their own sins.” (Jas 5:20)
Fr Broom