Hitting the pause button can lead to examination

    The Serenity Prayer, composed by theologian Reinhold Niebuhr in the late 1930s, is a cherished reflection because it speaks so directly to the human condition.
    Most people can recite the opening lines of the prayer from memory: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.”
    A lesser known section of the prayer concludes: “Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will; That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.”
    One of the great benefits related to “working” for the church are regular opportunities we at the Archdiocese of New Orleans are granted to pause – freed at least for a day from deadlines and the demands of a normal work schedule – and reflect on the thoughts, behaviors and habits that can foster serenity and true happiness.
    At an archdiocesan staff development day, Archbishop Gregory Aymond talked about how good it is to hit the pause button in our lives. So much of life can be a blur that it sometimes is difficult to know why we think and act the way we do. St. Paul wrote in his Letter to the Romans (7:15): “What I do, I do not understand. For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate.”
    At one time or another, everyone has been there, without a rudder, wondering, what just happened? Why is my life spinning like a loop, like in the movie, “Groundhog Day”?
    Jim Berlucchi, the seminar presenter from The Spitzer Center for Ethical Leadership in Ann Arbor, Mich., spoke about the Catholic Church’s centuries of treasured insights, specifically about our desire for “perfect, complete, unrestricted, transcendent and eternal happiness.”
    “That’s a desire for God, and we’re ultimately made for that,” Berlucchi said.
    He also touched on the cardinal virtues (prudence, fortitude, justice and temperance) and the theological virtues (faith, hope and love).
    What hit me the most was the development of Catholic thought (from St. Gregory of Nyssa to St. Augustine to St. Thomas Aquinas) from that of the ancient Greek philosophers. It was Socrates who famously said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.”
    During a table discussion, those words became concrete. Asked to identify a good habit she saw in herself, a religious sister who has served the poor and disenfranchised throughout her life said, “I am able to start each day dedicating my work to God.”
    That comment struck me between the eyes, because when I wake up at 6 a.m., I am more likely to turn on Sportscenter or the local news than to spend time in quiet reflection.
    Another colleague shared his good habit: “I don’t even turn on the TV. We have one TV in the house, and it’s the old version that needs a converter box to pick up the over-the-air channels. I guess when it breaks, I’ll have to enter the brave new world. I spend most of my free time reading.”
    “So many people wake up in the morning, and the first thing they do is turn on the TV,” Berlucchi added, reading my mind. “Try using that time for reflection, because it may be the only time you have to examine your life.”
    The journey toward eternal, transcendent happiness starts with a conscious thought – which leads to behavior, then to habit, then to virtue and then to character.
    The idea is to force yourself to pause, to think and to pray.  But first, you have to pull the plug on the TV – or at least hit the pause button.
    Peter Finney Jr. can be reached at pfinney@clarionherald.org.