Student Daily Reflection

[293] Acts 17:15, 22-18:1;
Ps 148:1-2, 11-12, 13, 14;
John 16:12-15

Weekly Guide for Daily Prayer
The Daily Reflections

“Life is not measured by how many breaths we take-but by how many moments take our breath away."-unknown

Today's readings prompted my recall of this quote. Though it may sound cliché, evoking memories of signing yearbooks at the end of high school, this quote offers some worthwhile advice. When making a difficult decision, it is easy to have concern for minute details; we are so easily distracted by life's unimportant details. It is human nature to fall into the trap of materialism: it is natural for us to quantify the financial yield of a decision, such as taking a higher paying job in which we are miserable. It is simple for us to make a "logical" decision based upon worldly, short-term success, or what will bring the greatest net benefit to us.

I read this week's readings, which to me resound with "anti-materialism." Paul writes in Acts, "we ought not to think that the divinity is like an image fashioned from gold, silver, or stone by human art and imagination." Divinity is anything but material and Heaven must be our main focus.

In order to avoid materialistic values, the here and the now, I try to use the fifty-year rule. In fifty years, will it matter that you got an A on that exam, or that you stayed up all night to talk your friend through an emotional breakdown? Will it matter that you stayed at work a little longer to earn more money, or that you made time to attend your best friend's birthday gathering? Will it matter that you spent your Sunday night studying, or that you made time for the Candlelight Mass?

Passages such as one from today's Gospel tend to keep me grounded in what will truly matter in the end:

"when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth... He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you... Everything that the Father has is mine; for this reason I told you that he will take from what is mine and declare it to you”