Psalm 62: “In you alone is my soul at rest. My help comes from you.”

College students, especially those away from home for the first time, have some wake-up calls. New situations prompt an internal audit; "Oh, oh, I will have to do the laundry!" "Dad won't be prodding me to get up." "To drink or not or how much to drink…”; Profs and staff will provide other wake-up calls. Of course, life now or later brings even more serious ones to all of us.

Some time ago a speaker of some fame and popularity did just this as he spoke to more than a million young people. He warned against a very dangerous kind of paralysis that could easily plague any of us. "To think that in order to be happy all we need is a good sofa. A sofa that makes us feel comfortable, calm, safe. . . . A sofa that promises us hours of comfort so we can escape to the world of video games and spend hours in front of the computer screen. It is very sad to pass through life without leaving a mark. But when we opt for ease and convenience, for confusing happiness with consumption, then we end up paying a high price indeed: we lose our freedom."

"It pains me to meet young people who seem to have opted for 'early retirement'. I worry when I see young people who have 'thrown in the towel' before the game has even begun or who are defeated even before they begin to play, who walk around glumly as if life has no meaning. Deep down, young people like this are bored . . . and boring! But it is also hard, and troubling, to see young people who waste their lives looking for thrills or a feeling of being alive by taking dark paths and in the end having to pay for it."

These wake-up calls courtesy of Francis (aka, the Pope) on World Youth Day 2016 in Krakow, Poland!

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!”

Reply to Fr. Don at: DTalafous@csbsju.edu

Watch Daily Mass online at: SaintJohnsAbbey.org/live

Send your prayer requests to the monks