Institute for Pastoral Initiatives News

By Sr. Angela Ann Zukowski,D.Min,MHSH

We live in a world that urges us to admire and pursue whatever is faster, whatever is newer and whatever is bigger.

“Living artfully with time might only require something as simple as pausing” wrote Thomas Moore in the New York Times bestseller, Care of the Soul.

How often do we feel we live a divided life, not a whole life and certainly not a holy one?

There is power in our awareness that our choices do, in fact, make a difference in our life. 

We come to the point when it takes courage to find an alternative pace for living each day.

There are some probing questions we may ask ourselves:

Am I feeling overwhelmed, adding more and more to my to-do list?

Do I feel rushed, wishing for a wand that would enable me to slow down time?

Have I ever wanted to pause long enough to see the handprint of God in the clouds, or in the face of a stranger, or in the irritation of the chaotic, or in the touch of friend or in the ordinary events of the day?

In the book,The Power of Myth, Joseph Campbell writes: “You must have a place to which you can go in your heart, your mind or your house almost every day where you do not owe anyone and where no one owes you – a place that simply allows for the blossoming of something new and promising.”

Somewhere along the way, life chokes the music and poetry out of us.

In the doing space, we work, achieve, accomplish and produce. 

But in the being space, we pray, touch, rest, wonder and, if we are lucky, achieve unrepentant napping.

It is time to embrace the Power of Pause.

Sister Angela Ann is the Director of the Institute for Pastoral Initiatives and the VLCFF online, which offers three week ($40) and five week ($50) faith formation classes year-round. HR covers the cost for university employees.  Go to VLCFF.UDayton.edu and click calendar to see the next start date.