The last few days have been crazy busy and it's at my own choosing, so I have no one to blame but myself. I've been cleaning, baking bread, sewing, knitting, working on an Advent retreat, being a mom and wife, doing laundry (it never ends...why does it never end?), exercising, and trying to pray.
Most days I prefer to be busy; I kind of lose it when I'm bored or unproductive. I have my daily list of things to do and I try to get most of it done. One of the things that I have on my list - with an alarm set - is to pray. As you can see from the list above, I can get a little nutty with the projects and things to do. The reminders throughout the day is my Angelus bell - stop what I'm doing and pray.
I lived in Ireland for a while and would often visit my great uncle. I'm not sure if it's still on T.V. there, but everyday at 6 pm an icon of the Blessed Mother would appear on the screen accompanied by Angelus bells (the morning and Noon Angelus were broadcast on the radio). I had heard of the Angelus, but had no idea what the prayer was. When the bells started ringing, without fail, my 85 year old uncle would stand up and pray silently.
I want to say that it's a shame that the Angelus has been forgotten in America as a prayer...but then I will go off on a rant about the poor quality of Catholic religious education in this country. Here's the truth: my current prayer reminder, frankly, is pretty lame compared the the Angelus. When I stop I simply offer up some intentions, say thanks for the day, etc; this isn't a bad way to pray, but there's no meat to it. Starting today, I'm going to begin praying the Angelus and try to do it as a family.
Being busy isn't a bad thing so long as I stop - everything - and pray.
p.s. I found a free Angelus app for iPhone. I don't know about other smart phones, if you find something, please post the info for others. Thanks!
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