\u201cBe watchful, pray constantly, that you may be worthy to stand before the Son of Man\u201d
\n(Luke 21:36).<\/p>\n
This essential Advent theme would, of course, fit any time of the year. Sudden deaths
\nof people in their prime, of young people, the appearance of cancer in ourselves or a
\nloved one — all these remind us to live more mindfully, with more awareness of what
\nlies or lives all around us. In the same context as the opening line Jesus says, \u201cBe on
\nguard lest your spirits become bloated with indulgence and drunkenness and worldly
\ncares\u201d (34). We hear often about the good of simplifying our lives, and usually we mean
\ngetting rid of unnecessary possessions, objects. In what we’ve just quoted from Jesus is
\nreference to another form of this: Be on guard against worldly cares.<\/p>\n
We need to be sure of our vision of what is important in life, that we are living for is
\nclear. The worries and concerns of human life can obscure our vision and our purpose.
\nA sixteen-year-old with cancer or the loss of a job for those who support a family, these
\nare legitimate cause for concern and, it is to be hoped, for constant prayer. But worldly
\ncare means our anxiety about keeping up with fashions or the neighbors, our fussing
\nabout the nonessentials of life. These we can profitably forget in order to reduce the
\nclutter in our lives, to help us focus on what life is really about.<\/p>\n
Fr.\u00a0Don<\/span>\u00a0Talafous, OSB, is a monk of Saint John\u2019s Abbey. He is a former university chaplain and theology professor. Among his many talents is the ability to recall the names of hundreds, if not thousands, of alumni whenever and wherever they greet him.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" New! Profound reflections from the monastery each day of December.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":44190,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[3119],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-plaza-new-ws"],"yoast_head":"\n