Resisting Happiness by Matthew Kelly

Author:Matthew Kelly [Matthew Kelly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: -
Publisher: BookBaby
Published: 2016-07-30T04:00:00+00:00

KEY POINT

Once you understand that God has an incredible dream for you, once you grasp that God wants you to become the-best-version-of-yourself and help others to do the same, and once you start to listen to the prayers of the Mass with all this in mind, you very quickly discover that there is genius in Catholicism.

ACTION STEP

Go to Mass twice this week, Sunday and any other day you like. Pay attention to how it focuses you and fills you with peace.

Bored?

Growing up, my brothers and I knew there were certain things you just didn’t say. One of those was “Shut up!” If we told someone to shut up, Mom or Dad would be on us in an instant. Another forbidden phrase was “I’m bored!” This would especially drive my father crazy. He grew up in London in the kind of poverty most people only ever read about. He started working when he was twelve years old, and kept working hard his whole life. I am sure he looked at our lives as children, and all the things and opportunities we had, and wondered how his life might have been different if he’d had the same opportunities.

To say we are bored at any moment in our lives is a massive insult to God, but to say we are bored at Mass takes the insult to whole other level.

Each Sunday morning my brothers and I would hold an election to figure out who would talk to our father and ask him if we had to go to church. We knew the answer, because we had attended the ten a.m. Mass at Saint Martha’s Church every Sunday of our lives. But we would pull out the greatest hits and try our best. We were either slow learners or extremely persistent. This is just one example of how the conversation would go:

Child: “Dad, do we have to go to Mass today?”

Dad: “No.”

Child: “You’re joking, aren’t you?”

Dad: “No.”

Child: “But there’s more to it, isn’t there?”

Dad: “Yes.”

Child: “What?”

Dad: “You don’t have to go to Mass if you can tell me the one thing that you are going to do while I am at church with all your brothers that is more important than going to church and thanking God for another week of life.”

Child: “Um…”

Dad: “Okay. It might take a while to think about that, so while you are thinking about it, go and get dressed for church.”

We walked to church every Sunday. When we arrived, Dad led us to the front row on the left-hand side. We sat there every Sunday. Never did we find someone else sitting in our seats. I’ve thought about that as I have gotten older, and I guess people in the parish just knew that was where we sat (not that people are generally fighting over the front row at church). Did we behave? I honestly don’t know. I am sure we embarrassed our parents on many occasions.

Have you ever been bored at Mass? Sure, we all have. For decades

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