One of our favorite podcasts as a family is Catholic Sprouts – a great weekday podcast (5-10 minutes) that covers a teaching or practice of the Church on a weekly basis. In addition to the podcast, there are some great reflections and items for sale. In the reflection today, Nancy shares:
You likely know already that I love St. Therese and she has given me tough-love on a number of occasions. Here, with kids in adoration, she saw another opportunity and, with the help of Fr. Jacques Philippe’s book, Interior Freedom, she introduced me to the freeing idea of CHOOSING TO BE INTERRUPTED.
Fr. Philippe writes:
[St. Thérèse] did not like having her work interrupted. Sometimes she was asked to do work requiring quite a lot of concentration … [but] the schedule of the Carmelite community was so intense that she had very little time at her disposal. When she finally found an hour or two to devote to the job, she applied herself in the following spirit: ‘I choose to be interrupted.’ If a good Sister then came by to ask her for some little service, instead of coldly sending her away Thérèse made the effort to accept the interruption with good grace. And if nobody interrupted her, she considered that a charming present from her loving God and was very grateful to him.
Interior Freedom, 56
Choosing to be interrupted.
Every fiber of my being tells me that I need to FIGHT AGAINST interruptions, that I need to DEFEND MY TIME and MY SPACE. But St. Therese smiled down on me and gently shook her head.
There is a better way.
When we go into a situation–like adoration with little kids–and we know that we will be interrupted, we can decide something right then and there.
We can choose to be interrupted.
We can choose to remain open. We can choose to give what we have, instead of clutching onto something that will be taken from us. We can choose to see Jesus in that interrupting voice. And when we choose to be interrupted, we are more free to love.
Of course St. Therese didn’t come up with this concept. This is exactly what Jesus did for us on the cross. He chose suffering. He gave us His pain and anguish as a gift.
And so, with the help of St. Therese and the profound example of Jesus Christ, I am working on loosening my grip while in adoration.
If I have a minute or ten to pray in the quiet, it is a gift. If the interruptions come nonstop, then that is a grace as well. A different kind of grace, but a grace nonetheless.
Do I do this perfectly? Far from it. But this advice from St. Therese is so freeing.
Like the vocation of a parent, the vocation of a principal is one where the interruptions tend to be what God wants you actually to deal with when you’re trying to do your own thing. As Dr. Tim Uhl wrote – “It was when I realized that the interruptions were the work that my approach changed.”
There are many days where it is the interruptions that I carry into my evening and mentally mark the day as a failure. However, like all things, this mental attitude is one that reflects my own selfishness and pride. The time I spend with parents, with teachers, and with students – reassuring them, guiding them, correcting them, listening with them – is not a failure for them (hopefully). It is in fact my job.
Something to pray and reflect on.
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