Reforming My Work

There’s much work to do, and with the priest shortage, that work is endless. After saying “yes” to everything, I found myself so exhausted that, while giving a homily, I almost fainted and fell out of a high pulpit in a cathedral. 

Shortly afterward, Jackie invited me to do Reform. With Jackie and Dr. Bridget’s wonderful guidance, I was able to restore healthy and consistent practices back into my life. Surprisingly, it wasn’t the spiritual, biological, or nutritional practices I found that changed me the most. What changed in me was my view of work. I’m happy to share here what I wrote in my journal at the end of Dig to the Roots, as it made me think of a garden:

The goal of self-care is not to be more effective, as if I’m meant to be an industrious machine producing one good work after another. Rather, it is to become like Adam and Eve in the garden, adorning it with joyful self-gift.

Through my self-gift, I perfect not only the garden but myself. The narrative of Scripture is God entrusting a garden that, through work, becomes a city of celebration, contemplation, worship, and leisure. When my work is lived with this perspective and balance, it contributes to my self-care as it adorns the garden and perfects me, for whom the garden has been made. 

Thank you, Jackie and the Reform team, for the joyful work you do!

— Fr. Jason Smith, LC