Welcome to the seventh issue of the Fit Shepherds’ newsletter. The one-year anniversary of the first Fit Shepherds’ workout just occurred — April 28. To commemorate that occasion, I posted Fr. Mark’s homily that inspired the creation of this group. It’s a great reminder to keep the main thing the main thing, which is we want to get healthier physically but it’s more imperative we grow spiritually and become better men. This world needs better men. So click on the audio above to listen.
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The main topic of this issue is how do we deal with stress and anxiety? Will working harder help? No. Will drinking more help? No. Will worrying help? No. Will getting angry help? No. Here are a couple of quotes that will help:
The following was written by the late Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen:
All our anxieties relate to time. A human being is the only time-conscious creature. Humans alone can bring the past to mind, so that it weighs on the present moment with its accumulated heritage; and they can also bring the future into the present, so as to imagine its occurrences as happening now. No animal ever says: “I have suffered this pain for six years, and it will last until I die.” But because a human being can unite the past to the present by memory, and the future to the present by imagination, it is often necessary to distract him in his sufferings — to break up the continuity of misery. All unhappiness (when there is no immediate cause for sorrow) comes from excessive concentration on the past or from extreme preoccupation with the future. The major problems of psychiatry revolve around an analysis of the despair, pessimism, melancholy, and complexes that are the inheritances of what has been or with the fears, anxieties, and worries that are the imaginings of what will be…
[A] remedy for the ills that come to us from thinking about time is what might be called the sanctification of the moment — or the Now. Our Lord laid down the rule for us in these words: “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today” (Matthew 6:34). This means that each day has its own trials; we are not to borrow troubles from tomorrow, because that day too will have its cross. We are to leave the past to divine mercy and to trust the future, whatever its trials, to God’s loving providence. Each minute of life has its peculiar duty — regardless of the appearance that minute may take. The Now-moment is the moment of salvation. Each complaint against it is a defeat; each act of resignation to it is a victory.
From Fr. Andrew Apostoli, a founding member of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal:
Perhaps we can sum up the balance of time in our lives with its aspects of past, present and future in a saying I once came across on a poster. God was speaking, and these were His words: “Do not focus on the past; My Name is not ‘I WAS.’ Do not focus on the future; My Name is not ‘I WILL BE.’ Live in the present moment, for My Name is ‘I AM.’ ”
The following is a prayer by St. Ignatius of Loyola:
O, Christ Jesus,When all is darknessAnd we feel our weakness and helplessness,Give us the sense of Your Presence,Your Love and Your Strength.Help us to have perfect trustIn Your protecting loveAnd strengthening power,So that nothing may frighten or worry us,For, living close to You,We shall see Your Hand,Your Purpose, Your Will through all things.
Amen.
