Give Us This Day

By: Ivonne J. Hernandez

A few years ago, I was organizing my closet and came upon a bag of undeveloped film… from the 1990’s! I immediately started researching companies that could still develop those photos for me. The process of getting it done was cumbersome, so I put it off. But that little tangent took me off track from the task I had started. In the end, my closet was not organized, and the film is still undeveloped.

Most of us would not have to look very hard to find an unfinished project in our hands. Perhaps we began to organize old photos one day and ran out of time; perhaps we started to write a book or decided to learn a new language, but something else caught our attention, and we left our project behind.
Then there are the repetitive, never-ending tasks relating to our daily lives. Whether it is a basket of laundry waiting to be folded, or an overflowing trashcan needing to be taken out, most of us will find something we left to finish later, because something else seemed more pressing (or more interesting) at the time. And though there definitely are times when stopping what we are doing and leaving it behind is the right thing to do, at least for myself, I know this is not the case most of the time.

One day, as I watched the priest purify the sacred vessels during Mass, I was moved by the significance of that action happening on the altar. Everyone watched and waited while the priest completed each task. This made me realize something. What seems like drudgery is in fact important and necessary; it is part of the sacrifice we offer to the Lord.

How does this apply to the offerings I bring to the Lord at other times in my life? If our whole lives are to be a living sacrifice for the Lord, then this means that if a work is worth doing, it is worth completing, to the best of our abilities. Of course, this presupposes that the task we were doing was what we were supposed to be doing in the first place.

“While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’ Then, completing their fasting and prayer, they laid hands on them and sent them off” (Acts 13:1-3). 
​

The fact that they completed their fasting and prayer before moving on to the next mission caught my attention. The Spirit had led them to pray, and He did not instruct them to stop. They remained steadfast, completed the task at hand, and only then did they move on.

One of the things we hear often during the season of Lent is that many of us do not finish the race strong. Like many New Year’s resolutions, fasting, prayer, and almsgiving hopes for Lent are left behind like Ash Wednesday dust. Perhaps we tried too much. Did we consult the Holy Spirit before we started, or did we choose our sacrifices on our own? If we took a wrong turn, then, by all means, let us take correction from God and change course. But, if the road we are on is the one the Holy Spirit has chosen for us, and we are just getting tired because it is harder and longer than we thought… then let us ask God for the gift of perseverance, for the gift of hope.

“I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6).
​

Each day brings within itself the possibility of a new beginning. God knows our attention span is short, that we get tired, and we get bored. When we offer God our day, we are giving him all our unfinished work. He meets us where we are with a new sunrise and a fresh start. We ask for the necessary grace; He gives us our daily bread. We can choose to live our lives as puppets, pulled by strings of emotions and whims, or we can ask God to help us live like sailboats led by the winds of the Holy Spirit.
​
When we come to understand that all the things in this world are there for our sanctification, then we can see each task and each work as holy. We can see that it is good and necessary to give all we have with as much love as we have to give. Everything we do becomes an offering to God. In this way, we become a living prayer. Our very breath becomes a song of praise. Let us persevere in the good work at hand…

“Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself” (Matthew 6:34).
​

Ivonne J. Hernandez

Ivonne is a Catholic wife, mother, Lay Associate of the Blessed Sacrament, and President of Elisheba House. Speaker and writer, author of The Rosary: Eucharistic Meditations. Alongside her husband, Rick Hernandez, she coordinates the RCIA program at their home parish. A lover of choral music, Ivonne is a member of the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay. She and her husband live in Trinity, FL, with two of their young adult sons.