Most Reverend Jerome E. Listecki
Archbishop of Milwaukee
 

They say as you get older time flies. When you’re young, however, those summer days seem to drag on and on, referred to as those lazy hazy days of summer. The older you get, the quicker time passes. Perhaps it’s because there is more time that has passed than is left to experience life.

This last summer seems to have passed by in the blink of an eye. I normally have a hectic schedule that speeds up the passage of time, but this summer was a blur. I often tell the new seminarians to enjoy their time in the seminary because before they know it, they will be assigned to a parish and administering the sacraments. Maybe that’s part of the mystery; when we want something very much we just can’t wait for it. It seems like we will never get there, like waiting for public transportation. It doesn’t seem like it will ever come, but it does. 

St. Thomas Aquinas gives us great advice to make sure we realize that some of our best moments are the times spent in striving for a goal rather than in the achievement. When our vision is so fixed on the future, or when our vision is so fixed on the past, we forget the gift of the present. How many people have entered our lives and are given to us for a short time but have made a lasting impact?  We are creating lasting moments right now and we will feed on the memories that are created.

We begin September 2014 as a new year in the history of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. Let’s pledge to ourselves to savor every experience offered to us as a gift from God through which we can learn to become closer to Him. Although we cannot slow time down, we can remind ourselves that our ultimate goal is to be with God. In desiring Him above all things, we allow ourselves the ability to slow down and be grateful for the time we have to be instruments of God’s will and the ability to LOVE ONE ANOTHER.

Note: This blog originally appeared as the September 2, 2014 "Love One Another" email sent to Catholics throughout the Archdiocese of Milwaukee by Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki. If you are interested in signing up for these email messages, please click here.