After days of vacation this summer, many people have returned to their usual routines, leaving behind long, peaceful days and that feeling of freedom from schedules or obligations.
The return to school, the early-morning rush, and the many responsibilities of work and family life can sometimes lead to fatigue and even a certain melancholy. However, this time also offers the opportunity to begin anew and embrace Christian joy and hope with faith.
Father Juan José Pérez-Soba, a diocesan priest and professor of family ministry at the Pontifical John Paul II Theological Institute for Marriage and Family Sciences in Rome, offered some reflections on the end of summer and the beginning of fall.
He told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, that “our actions arise from the presence of the people we love and therefore create obligations in which we feel that our hearts are filled up.”
The obligations of the first days of September can be experienced as “a call from the Lord that contains a promise, … encouraging us to walk with the certainty of counting on the presence of God, who is a source of life,” he noted.
He said that joy and happiness arise when “we discover the true meaning of what we do.” This will depend on whether our desires “are well-oriented toward building a beautiful life.”
“We must know how to recognize this daily: Even if we end up tired because of what we have done, we are joyful because it was beautiful,” he emphasized.
During vacation, we tend to have more free time to pray, read, and even meditate. Asked whether it is also necessary to begin a prayer routine upon returning from summer vacation, the priest said that “routine entails psychological rest from an action repeated many times, which requires less effort.”
“As with all love, habits are formed that we rely on to grow; this is also good for prayer,” he added.
Pérez also noted the communal dimension of prayer: “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there in their midst” (Mt 18:20). Thus, he emphasized that “praying as a family is vital.”
Prayer should be included “in small communal acts: meals, getting up from and going to bed; also in parties and celebrations as a spontaneous act of thanksgiving. In this way, we discover that it is the love of God that unites everything,” he added.
Living the present and the everyday as a gift
Regarding the tendency in our society to “postpone happiness“ for some future time without fully experiencing the gift of the present, the priest said that “not focusing on what we are doing but on what we have to do next is very exhausting because it makes us twice as tense.”
This, for Pérez, “comes from a results-oriented mentality of wanting to respond to demands and not knowing how to enjoy what we are experiencing, because it isn’t considered a gift.”
He said we should know “how to recognize that God gives great unity to our lives through the blessings we receive from him, which allow us to read our history through God’s eyes.”
"Thus, the year, as in the liturgy, is not about 'repeating' what is necessary, but rather about celebrating God coming into our lives, a memorial that reveals the newness of love, which in every moment asks us for something original," he said.
The priest emphasized that "happiness does not consist in feeling good about doing something, but in understanding that we remain faithful on God's path, in which, as with the disciples at Emmaus, he sets our hearts on fire by explaining the Scriptures and breaking bread."
"This is the time of grace, which is not an empty time, but rather filled with a presence of love that reminds us of the past, that lives on promises, and that knows how to be grateful for present blessings," he explained.
By Almudena Martínez-Bordiú
ACI Prensa Staff
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.