Serving at Home

Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.  For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me,naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.’  Then the righteous will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?  When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’  And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’-Mt 25:34-40

This has always been a passage that touched me.  It has called me to go out and serve.  To volunteer at a soup kitchen, to visit the nursing home, to tutor struggling kids.  To go out and serve.  These are things that I enjoyed doing.  The people I served brought me joy and I felt as if I was doing God's work.  

But this service was not something that I did every day.  It was scheduled.  I served when it fit best into my schedule and when it worked with theirs.  When it was on the calendar, then I served and when I was done I went home and continued with my life.

All this has now changed.  As I sit here nursing my new baby I realize that he is a child of God.  He is "one of these" that Jesus was speaking about.  The last few weeks of my life have been completely filled with feeding, clothing and caring for this little baby.  This is service.  I am learning that there are times when I am not called to go out and serve but I am called to stay in and serve.  Right now I am called to serve the Lord by caring for my little baby.  This is not something that I have to fit into my schedule this is my life.  Over the past few weeks my life has changed dramatically.  The way that I serve the Lord has changed dramatically as well.   

Thank them for their service

Cloistered Nuns
Just the thought kind of scares me.  At first it seems a little weird.  What do they do all day?  They pray.  But is that really all they do?  I didn't really understand it.  But then I listened to this program on "The Good Catholic Life" (a local radio talk show) and reflected on the following line from Pope John Paul II (which I first wrote about here)

"Yes, God alone is our true and unfailing support, just as love and prayer are the only sure spiritual levers with which it is possible to lift up the world."- Pope John Paul II (1994)

It was then that I realized that the women who spend there days in prayer are not doing it for themselves, they are doing it for the Lord and for us!  They are not spending there time praying for themselves but they are praying for the Church (for us).  They might not be physically feeding the poor and ministering to the imprisoned or even evangelizing to their neighbors but they are serving the poor, the imprisoned and their neighbors in a much greater way.  They are bringing the sufferings and pains of the people and of the Church to the Lord.  Although it may not be visible to outsiders they are directly serving the needs of the suffering.

Through Prayer!

It reminds me of how we often thank our soldiers serving in the military (as we should).  We thank them for giving up their life (at least part of it) to serve our country (and us).  They are separated from their friends and loved ones as they devote themselves to others.  In a similar way a woman entering a cloistered convent is giving up her friends and loved ones to devote herself to prayer.  This prayer is a service to us all and it involves a great deal of sacrifice on their part.
We should thank them for their service.  We should thank their families for the sacrifice that they make as well.  To me it seems like an unbelievable sacrifice and an unbelievable service.
Thank them.