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THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

Thought for the Day# 53 - Thursday, May 7, 2020

“Do You Have a Schedule?”

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Do you have a schedule for your day? Even if you are confined at home, and
have no specific work goal to meet, do you still have a schedule?

If you want to have bodily hygiene, mental hygiene, spiritual hygiene, you need
a schedule. We live in space and in time. We need space, no matter how small,
but we also need time: we live in time.
A schedule for getting up, a schedule for going to bed, a schedule for eating, for
praying, etc., we need all of that, but -with some flexibility! It can be a flexible
schedule, a minimalist schedule with room for adjustment.
I am thinking of the monasteries where, for centuries, the monks and nuns
have lived a kind of confinement, for all practical purposes. What is one of the
most important things in a monastery? The schedule! The schedule of the day,
that everyone knows, which everyone follows as the way of life in community.
However, since it is a matter of having both community life and personal life,
some time is planned for people to be alone, to meditate, read, do what they
want or take a walk. This is time to grow as an individual person. So, in the
same day, there is a plan to live community life and personal life.

If we follow that example, we should be able to come up with an idea for our
own schedule; we should have a sense of when to meet, when to be with every-
one, and when to be by ourselves taking care of personal concerns.

Have a schedule regardless of how it is constructed. You may build it alone or
with someone else. Even if you are alone you need a schedule. It will help you
be concrete and practical and no longer wonder what time of the day it is. A
schedule helps our mental health but also our spiritual health. It helps us to
stretch out, to swim up, stay afloat and survive; more than survive! It will help
to get through this crisis and even grow through it.
“Do you have a schedule?”

Collection of texts by the Most Rev. Christian Lépine 64