Today is St. Martha’s feastday!

From today’s meditation in In Conversation with God:

Concretely, our activities and concerns that refer directly to the Lord’s service should never cause us to forget the one thing needful, the Person of Christ. In our ordinary life we need to keep in mind that matters which seem terribly important, like work, financial gain and social relations should never take precedence over the family itself. These means are worth little if family life suffers. Only in extraordinary situations may it be necessary for the head of the family to work far away from the home as in the case of immigrants or sailors. If a father or mother earns more money but neglects the children, what good can this result?

This has been a constant struggle in our household: discerning what’s “good” and what is “best”. Increasingly we have come to realize that what is best is putting FAMILY’s needs first — sometimes over individuals’ needs, often over community’s needs. If the family’s needs are not taken care of, be they mental, emotional, physical or spiritual, service outside of the family ultimately suffers. You cannot give of yourself if you don’t get the nourishment you need first. Our children need us to give of ourselves, before we can give ourselves to others, or expect our children to give of themselves. When the very nucleus of society is neglected, i.e., simply expected to grow on its own, it won’t. As my husband puts it, “People usually say ‘It’s not about quantity, it’s about quality. But at the same time, you cannot have QUALITY TIME when there’s no quantity to begin with.” Serving Christ means paying attention to the most basic needs — putting Christ first means a commitment to prayer, especially family prayer… which in turn enriches every other aspect of our lives. Then and only then can we focus on the essential. And when we focus on the essential, we realize that so many things in our lives are just… fluff. Even service becomes fluff when they take us away from our #1 job: making sure our family’s needs are met.

This is closely related to our goal of living a slower, simpler life…. which we discuss more in detail here.