Busy- October 2, 2026
Welcome to yet another Friday and yet another letter from your pastor!
One of the duties and privileges of a priest is spiritual direction, and often we ourselves learn a little about the spiritual life from our directees (sometime more than they learn from us). I recently had spiritual direction with a woman from Crete, who has been coming to see me for 2 years or so now. In that meeting she mentioned how she had gone on retreat and heard something interesting that she had never heard before: busy is an acronym. My first thought was that this was going to be really stupid. And it was. But, I must say it does hold some water and made me reconsider some things. Busy is broken up as such:
Burdened
Under
Satan’s
Yoke
I’m not a fan of trendy acronyms, but it did make me reflect on the busyness of our time: sports, school, work, vacations, day trips. All of these good things that we get to experience take up our time and make us, well, busy. And being busy isn’t all that bad – it keeps us out of trouble (usually), it can be fun, and it can be truly edifying. But, busyness can also take us away from God instead of bring us closer to him.
When we are too busy to pray, go to Mass, be with our families, or anything else within our vocations, we are moving from God and are burdening ourselves under Satan’s yoke. To be busy in this sense is satanic, meaning that we move away from God, and Satan is the only other option. If we are busy in the Lord’s work, however, it is life-giving and fruitful. We actually move closer to God and not farther away from him. Busyness is truly a blessing, as it means God has given us the means to be busy. Even St. Paul wishes us to be truly busy and not simply “acting like busybodies.” (2 Thess. 3:11) We just need to be prudent and not allow busyness to hijack our vocation.
Now that school is in full swing and extracurriculars abound, let’s not forget our debt to the Lord. He is a God who loves us and wants to be with us. Let’s not let busyness get in the way and burden us under Satan’s yoke.
God Bless!
Fr. Stoley
