Fr. Don's Daily Reflection - October 29, 2024
Photo by Cathy Lampert
Psalm 62: “In you alone is my soul at rest. My help comes from You.”
That there are cycles in a marriage is probably no surprise to those married more than a few weeks. Mary Durkin names them this way: falling in love, settling down, bottoming out and beginning again. They sound a lot like what happens in any serious, long term commitment. My dictionary defines bottoming out as descending to the lowest point possible from which a new ascent might come.
Chilling as that might sound to the young couple or the person joyously and generously embarking on a marriage or some enterprise, it seems realistic. It hardly seems possible that we can maintain unfailingly the enthusiasm with which we begin new commitments. We might maintain our responsibilities to the commitment; that I don't doubt, but the energy and excitement that we all love accompanying what we do is a different matter.
Prayer, Sunday Mass can become so blah, so heavy, such a drag. I doubt whether anyone of us escapes this completely. For some, such periods might be very brief; for others, they might hang on like a chronic cold. Worse, the feeling might extend to everything in life: getting up in the morning, work, daily responsibilities. If we've "bottomed out" a number of times we will probably realize that patience is partly what's needed.
Unless these periods are of the type that require medical help, they will pass. Beginning again -- and again -- seems part of anything we ever want to preserve. Trusting that things can get better is part of their improvement. "At night there are tears, but joy comes with dawn," says the psalmist (29/30:6).
Psalm 27: “I believe I shall see the Lord’s goodness / in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord; be strong; / be stouthearted, and wait for the Lord!”
