YOUTH MATTERS: The time we are given

By Sam Clear, Director of the Office of Youth Evangelisation

Every moment counts.

“I’m just killing time,” is a widely used phrase in our society. As harmless as the phrase is, time isn’t ours to ‘kill’; it is a gift from God. Being stewards of the gift of time God has given us could begin by simply being more intentional about how we use our down-time.

If I’m just ‘killing time’, then any random action could suffice for being a form of relaxation, but to be conscious of how much time I have to relax and how I could best utilise it to draw closer to God and be better prepared for what the hours after relaxation might hold often creates a different set of choices for us.

I heard a Dominican Sister of St Cecelia give a talk a few years ago where she asked a room full of young adults, “What is the very first thing you do in the morning? You open your eyes – what’s your very next movement?” The answer was unanimous – everyone admitted to reaching for their phones. The Sister laid the challenge down, “Before you reach for your phone, reach out to God. Say, ‘Good morning’. Pray.”

Without overthinking everything we do, we can still be intentional with every action. Do we drive or walk with music playing all the time, or can some of that time be deliberately silenced for prayer, or placing a phone call to someone who’d love to hear from us?

Two years ago I wrote in Youth Matters about two Irishmen I walked along the Camino de Santiago with for a few days, but what I hadn’t noted was that in walking with them my prayer routine changed. It is common courtesy to talk to those around us, but for the first few days we only talked. I would pray when I wasn’t around them.

After a few days we were still chatting and I finally had the courage to ask, “Hey guys, I normally pray a rosary while I walk. Would you like to join me?”

One of the men lit up, responding that he prayed it every day as well and was also praying it when not around us, and the other said he used to pray it with his mum when he was a child and that he’d love to pray and walk. We walked on praying together. It’s easy for our day to pass by without intention, drifting from one moment to the next, but we are called to be intentional in our actions; to use our time for love, for God.

“So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” (Psalm 90:12)