Notes from Homilies: Suffering & Sacrifice

Saw an interesting blog post by Roman Catholic Cop.  He was challenged to record one thought from the weekly homilies at Mass.

In Matthew Kelly's talk, "The Seven Pillars of Catholic Spirituality"  he suggests taking ONE thing from father's homily on Sunday and to write it down in a journal.  He says after one year of going to mass you will have an amazing guide to spirituality.

I like this idea, so I'm going to attempt to do the same here.  Too often, I find something at Mass really touches me, but as soon as I get out the doors and have to deal with lunches and kids and to-do's, I forget what it was that made such an impact.  Writing them will give me a chance to remember, and I thought you might like to share in them as well.

Today's homily was about sacrifice and suffering, and how our vocations in life involve each.  The priest spoke of a high school boy paralyzed in a hockey accident, and in an interview he said that this was his calling, his vocation.  "It is a mystery, but I embrace it."

What an amazing attitude for a teen to take.  I think about the days I just want to give up on everything because I'm tired or have a headache or someone got mad at me, but this kid may never walk again, but he's not only not giving up, but embracing this mystery he's been dealt.  I'm humbled.

The other thing I'm taking, which applies to the first, is the idea that suffering can mean putting yourself aside to serve others.  That's one I have a hard time with because (like I said in my book, Why God Matters), I tend to have a martyrdom streak, and a loud martyrdom streak at that.  Instead of putting myself aside in my suffering in order to serve others, I tend to make a noisy point of my suffering as I serve others.

What about you?  What did you take from today's homily or sermon?  What do you think about suffering and service?