Ascension
After the Resurrection, Jesus appeared to the Apostles and some of His disciples. He told them that He was going to the Father and that it was good for Him to go, so that they could receive the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete. Jesus’ physical earthly ministry ended, yet the Holy Spirit remained, leading us to the Son and the Father.
Jesus spent about three years preparing the Apostles, so they would go and spread the good news. As a father, following the example of Christ, I understand the need to prepare my children to know, love, and serve God. I’ve been lucky to have more than three years, and I hope I get at least three more decades before I need to go to the Father.
My eight-year-old son is receiving his first Holy Eucharist today, and we’re all excited for him. I took him to confession on Tuesday, and he was all smiles afterward. After practice on Wednesday, he was basically ready to go, but still needed to wait a few days. Mrs. Cantú and I noticed that all of his siblings are excited for him as well, which is nice to see.
I needed to go to confession, and I noticed my ten-year-old son had been easily irritated lately, so I popped into his room and said, “Do you want to go to confession with me?” He looked at me with a half smile and nodded yes. We both went. God bless our church ladies! We said hi to a couple of them, and they always have something encouraging to say to my son or me.
I think I’m at a stage where I feel I have a lot of leverage in nudging my children toward God. I know I have a finite window of time where I will be able to influence their worldview. I also think I’m modeling (to the best of my abilities) the love of the Father. After all, all fatherhood comes from God’s divine fatherhood, and I’m just over here exercising my natural fatherhood. I’ll admit most times I’m justice heavy with a smidge of mercy, which is to say, I’m a work in progress.
I heard somewhere that having a good father can help you relate to God as Father, and that makes sense. If I, as a father, am able to give good gifts, how much more our Father in heaven? I don’t know how much longer I have with my kids, but it’s my hope to drag them with me to heaven even if they go kicking and screaming (hopefully they don’t). After that, I’ll probably say something like Holy Spirit, take the wheel!
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Diaconate Discernment
This past Saturday, Mrs. Cantú and I attended our last formation session of the first year of formation for the permanent Diaconate. It was a class on Diaconal Celibacy, which probably merits its own entry at a later date; it is extremely interesting once you understand the why behind it.
The last two weeks have been full and, at times, overwhelming. Still, the good Lord has given us the grace needed to carry on. In Spanish, we say that God squeezes but doesn’t choke when talking about trials, and I’d say we’ve felt the squeeze at times. Obviously, these little wounds are meant to lead us to abandon ourselves to His Divine Providence with greater trust.
I’d say that I’ve noticed a growth in love of the Lord, even though I still struggle with habitual sin, controlling my temperament, patience, and charity. Mrs. Cantú and I joke that it’s a good thing so many people let us know they’re praying for us; we’d be even worse parents without them. Our problems didn’t disappear overnight, yet we seem able to hold on to God even more tightly, as if we’ve been working on our spiritual grip strength (namely, Lauds and Vespers from LOTH).
So what’s next, you ask? Well, a committee reviewed the applications of all the men in the cohort and made recommendations on who they thought should be invited to continue past the spirituality year into aspirancy (the second year of formation out of five total). A report will be presented to one of the auxiliary bishops of Phoenix (Bishop Nevares) on June 5th, he’ll review it, pray with it, and pass on his recommendations to Bishop Dolan, who will then make the final decision.
Optimistically, I should know in about a month whether I’m being asked to continue in the discernment process. Mrs. Cantú and I are at peace with any and all outcomes from this process. If we are asked to continue, wait, or stop, praise the Lord. We know God will never lead us astray, and the fact that the whole experience of formation has strengthened our marriage and boosted our spiritual life as a couple is already worth the sacrifices we’ve had to make.
In the meantime, know that you are in my prayers, and I’d ask you to keep my family and me in your intentions as we try to discern God’s will in our lives. May God bless you abundantly.
Parkinson’s Law
A goal is a dream with a deadline.
-Napoleon Hill
Parkinson’s Law states that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”. Coined by C. Northcote Parkinson in 1955, this principle implies that as the time allotted for a task decreases, the perceived importance and intensity applied to it increase, forcing the work to contract to fit the deadline.
I learned about Parkinson’s Law by listening to Tim Ferris’s “The Four-Hour Work Week.” I had been applying this law without knowing its name for a while. In reality, the Smorgasbord is put together on Friday night between 9:00 and 11:00 PM when I tell myself, “Well, I’d better write something for tomorrow.” The best part is that it works! I define the task: write three sections in a couple of hours, and then I execute.
You would say, but Walther, why not write one section per day, Monday through Friday? That way, you’d have five pieces to choose from, and you publish the best three for us to read? That would imply I’m organized. You give me too much credit, dear reader.
The reality is, the muse doesn’t work like that. Recently, I’ve gone back to using Obsidian for note-taking, and since I’ve figured out how to sync notes from my phone and laptop to a private GitHub repository, I have a lot more options to expand on for the Smorgasbord. Then again, sometimes, like this week, I wasn’t really feeling the other topics I’d jotted down, and I came up with the first sections of today’s Smorgasbord two hours before my self-imposed deadline.
However, being aware of Parkinson’s Law made me think about how it can be applied to pretty much anything you want to get done, whether it is work, emptying the dishwasher, or folding laundry. Time-box it and see how much more focused you are on the task at hand.
You can even turn it into a game. Use something like pomofocus.io to have focused work sessions of 25 minutes (or whatever suits your preferences/needs) and then take a 5-minute break, then go back to the next 25-minute block, until you’re done.
Alright, time’s up. Time for a break. If you try it out, let me know how it worked for you, okay?
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Sobremesa
Are you friends with any of your parish’s church ladies? If No, why?
Would you be interested in learning about Diaconal Celibacy?
Do you practice time boxing your tasks? Yes/No? Why?