Too Tired to Be Catholic? Here’s What to Do!

Ever feel like being Catholic is like running on a treadmill... that’s also on fire... and moving backward? Don’t worry, you’re not alone—let’s talk about why the struggle is real (and maybe laugh about it so we don’t cry).

Transcript

You ever get those days where you just feel like you're too tired to be Catholic you know with all the stuff you have going on in your life if you're a mom and you're trying to take care of your kids and you've got a career at the same time or there's a million things going on or you know you're a guy you've got to go to work every day and got to take care of your family or if you're single you know you're still trying to make your way through the world and and you're we're living in a world that just it it let's face it they they hate (00:29) Catholics for the most part if you look at the persecution around the world and over in over time it's like the Catholics who get the brunt of it so here you are struggling to be Catholic each and every day and you may be feeling overwhelmed you may be feeling like Lord am I doing a good enough job am I doing all the things I'm supposed to do and it's really easy I think to get bogged down in all the I don't know maybe the specifics of our faith or the things you can do I mean for example I've got a list here i' I've been on (01:05) Retreats before and and after you you know when they're over they give you a sheet of like oh here's some you know here's some things to do in your day and everything so it's this one says talk it talks about going to bed on time every night waking up on time every morning make the sign of the cross upon waking up say the morning offering every morning say personal morning prayers make a resolution each morning spend 15 minutes a day in mental prayer say morning prayers with my family and it goes on and on and on I don't say that (01:33) to overwhelm you but to say that this whole thing is a process it's a process toward just getting to heaven and if you're ever feeling down and tired and exhausted and like you know lord I can't go on the end game is an eternity of Happiness so if you ever think if you ever think you're having a bad moment or a bad day or a bad year or a bad decade or maybe even a crappy life sometimes it's nothing in comparison to Eternity and I don't mean to be flipping about that but sometimes it's putting things into perspective if think about (02:11) already think about your life already when you look back in time how much time is already gone and how quickly it's gone right years decades it's gone poof and yet maybe during any part of that time you may have been thinking oh dear God I can't make it through this situation can't make it through this difficulty I can't make it through this cross that I have at the moment and in the moment you're like oh my gosh this is so incredibly hard I I I can't do this so fast forward today and here you are it's like hey did it kill you nope (02:50) it hasn't killed me yet so right here you are on this path to being a better Catholic a better person and it's seems tough sometimes to get up and just say oh my gosh it's another day I'm exhausted I'm tired I can't do this and it's it's very simple and it's easy to say okay well look at Jesus he had to carry the cross see how hard it was look at his life but that is a great way to look at it read the scriptures about all the stuff Jesus had to go through think about all the people who you know think about this you know if (03:27) you ever get one of those days where it's like oh I I do all these good things for people and they don't even recognize it or or I I say and do things that I'm trying to help other people and they misconstrue it and they I don't know they turn around they they don't appreciate anything I do you know like if you're parents and you're doing good things for your kids and they turn around and they you know they're sassing you back sassing back at you and um giving you a hard time and think about this that Jesus came to Earth and he did all these (03:57) wonderful things these Miracles and all that and they wanted to kill him they said he had a devil think about Jesus in front of Pontius Pilate when they chose barabus over him barabus who was a murderer right and a thief whatever he was all kind of bad stuff and only say that think okay take a deep breath take a step back and say okay I'm doing the best I can I can't really you know I have no control over how people look at me I can't control how people react to me I can't control what people say to me so what can I control you can control every (04:36) moment of the day and what you do and what you think and what you say and so it gets back to my original list here of things to start working on to help you get through a day to help you get through the week do you start your day with prayer do you get out of bed and start your day with prayer or you jump on the Internet or you jump on your computer or you got a million other things to do and if you get up and you have to take care of children great do you take a moment or two even it's for a minute and just get on your (05:09) knees and say thank you God for a new day help me do better I'm trying to do better and strengthen me through this day I go back a lot of times I think about all the times I had a tough day or a tough time when the last place I turned was to God the last place I I cried out to help he was to God it's like well didn't even think about him here I am at work having a hard time here I am with my family having a hard time and it's so easy to get into yourself and I've talked about this before about you know you get this (05:44) mentality depending on how you grow up it's like well I I'll have to do it myself I you know like that defiant two-year-old I can do it I do it myself right so take a breather and relax for a second and reach out to God and say you know what Lord I need help with this and get in the habit of starting off your day the right way offering it to God throughout the day try to think about God take a step back look at a crucifix and just think about our lord for a minute you know you you don't have to be a perfect Catholic because there's (06:21) no such thing and if you have this struggle with perfectionism I know it's really hard but each moment of the day just say you know what I'm doing the best I can I'm trying I'm getting back up St Francis sales is awesome it's like you know thank God that you get up after every fall you'd kind of you know you hear that expression about dust off the dirt and try again but that's that's what the Catholic life is all about it's getting up over and over and over again it's like it's almost like a funny movie right where you see the maybe the (06:53) cartoon character getting hit over and over and over again like a Wy coyote in the Road Runner cartoons right you're getting smacked down and you get up over and over and over and over again and as you get along in life when you find yourself getting frustrated or discouraged it's like oh I'm I'm you know I'm a crappy Catholic I'm just I must not be doing this right take a deep breath give yourself a break and you know as again as St Francis sales says be be patient with the whole world but first be patient with (07:26) yourself and I'm not trying to be preacher about this because if I have to preach to anybody it's to myself it's being gentle with yourself it is and I don't know if it's theologically correct to say you can forgive yourself but give yourself a break look at all the stuff in your world look how crazy this world it's not like you have a world that's helping you out it's not like you have a world that says you know you get up and you turn on the TV and it's like hey praise God it's a new day right there's people who are (07:57) belittling your face the the faith the media you know lot of lot of I don't know government all the whole world is just screaming at you it's like give up God look at me look at all these you know look at social media I've got you know look at me look at me look at me look at these horrible pictures of that that get guys in trouble if you know what I'm talking about and think about all these these TV shows these movies right about the the the incredible depravity when was the last time you saw um a movie or a TV show that showed uh a (08:33) Catholic Family that was trying and struggling to grow in faith because that was the end goal right just to raise a great family and get everybody into heaven when was the last time you you saw a show like that a TV show instead everyone's jumping in a bed with everybody everyone's got some kind of addiction or you know chugging down alcohol or doing drugs and it's all glamorized you're we're living in a world that doesn't want us to go to heaven no wonder you're tired here you are trying to raise a great family here (09:03) you are trying to do your best at work here you are trying to get the best you know have great friends and people who are trying to help you out yet every single day is a struggle and it's tiring one thing I had to work on for myself is just being taking a breather taking a breath it's like it's okay to sit down for a few minutes and take a breath you don't have to keep working working working you know with that they call it the Protestant work ethic right where you just kind of work yourself to the to the Bone like you have to you (09:34) have to become a workaholic and you have to you know work 60 70 80 hours a day that's that's not what the Catholic life is about it's about you know taking a breath throughout the day using your strength as you know using your talent skills and ab abilities when you have the best strength in the day if you can of course you don't always have that option at work you don't always have that option around kids and family and everything but it's taking a deep breath give yourself a break be gentle with yourself and I don't know create a (10:09) create a list for yourself of things that you want to get better at as a Catholic say I want to study my catechism for 15 minutes a week you know Sunday's a good day to do that um I want to have morning and night prayers I want to make sure I get up every morning and say my prayers and I want to make sure before I go out to bed I say my prayers right you know Act AC of Contrition look over your day and do your best to do better the next day so my message to you today is just take a breath relax don't strive for Perfection (10:47) there's no such thing Jesus says you know to be perfect as is his heavenly father is perfect the struggle is real and what I think that means is every day strive toward Heaven every day strive to get a little better every day strive to do something you didn't do the day before that's going to help you get to heaven so if you're you're struggling don't give up don't throw it all the way if and again I'm always saying this from experience it's like at the end of the day it's like oh I I said I was going to do this I was going to finish this and I (11:25) look at my to-do list and I got nothing done that that I thought needed to be done or was on that list you ever have a day like that and I had to look at I just had to get on my knees and say Lord this is what I had planned I didn't get to these things and if it was procrastination if it was my fault okay got to admit it but the weird part of our faith is that God knows God already knows what you're going to do today and in the future and he still likes you he still loves you no matter what I think what really matters the most is the struggle (12:05) is that you're working out your salvation like like St Paul in fear and trembling but it's also a hard work right scripture tells us that the the violent take it away when it comes to Heaven those who work on getting rid of their vices those who are working to grow in virtue those who are growing to know their faith more and more so that they can defend it against you know with with others with this world that doesn't believe in anything so some some action steps you can take is one work on just prayers right morning (12:44) and evening work on throughout the day taking a pause and thinking about our Lord right I think was it oh St Augustine I forget who think you say maybe it was either okay help me out here St Katherine of Sienna or uh St teres St teres of Avala you know basically think of me and I will think of you so just work on that work on making Jesus your best friend in the best sense of that word because he's always thinking of you so take some time to think about him take a deep breath give yourself a break and just work on notching taking up you (13:23) know notching up your game a little bit every day you may have heard that addage about you know it's it's uh two steps forward and one step back and I got to I I swear there are so many days where it feels like it's one step forward and two steps back right like you're not even gaining ground in fact you're losing ground and that's okay it's to look in the mirror and to love yourself to give yourself a break to be gentle with yourself and just look at our Lord and say Lord I'm doing the best I can or even saying lord I can't do it I need (13:57) your help and Jesus Whispers back and he says let me do it for you this has taken me a long time to even even fathom this gentleness and this love this this love for myself this love for myself that God has for me you may be struggling with that too but each and every day you can count on one thing that God is always there he loves you so much he likes you so much so I hope that helps I'm recording this on a Friday uh it's been a long week and if I can do it if I can make it you can make it right you've made it (14:43) this far so congratulations give yourself a pat on the back good job and keep striving forward never give up and just know that uh you know Jesus loves you and I'm with you on this road keep at it God bless you we'll talk to you soon"