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                 Slow down

    Mother Teresa wrote, "God is the friend of silence."  As a disciple it is so important to take time each day simply to quiet down and listen to the Spririt as it speaks in the events of life.  People find all sorts of ways to achieve this silence.  It might be a daily walk, it might be a daily stop at a chapel or other quiet place in your daily routine.  For those caring for young children, it might be only a few moments between chores while the children are asleep.
     Some Catholics have familiar prayers that they use for such moments.  The rosary is a treasured way of slowing down and praying quietly.  If you don't wish to practice something so structured, slowing down can be as simple as taking 10 minutes each day to be silently present with God.  One way to do this is to sit in an upright and comfortable position and focus on your breathing.  Recognize that you inhale God's presence with each breath and exhale concerns, distractions, worries.  This may be simple, but to do so on a daily basis requires a great deal of discipline.
     Whatever your practice, over a period of time it becomes an oasis in your day.  Within our traditions of meditation and quieting (ie. Ignatioan, Franciscan, Benedictine), and bookstores are loaded with recent titles on techniques and processes of meditation and centering.  All are build on some aspect of quieting, an essential practice for a disciple.

From Catholic Updates/St. Anthony Messenger Press "Seven Disciplines of Successful Catholics"