We enter August with a graced opportunity

With the arrival of the month of August some things in our daily routines change. One of the most obvious is that our Catholic schools resume classes, followed by parish OCIA classes and their own faith formation classes. Another change to our daily routines is that most of our extended vacations come to an end and daily work schedules begin to return to normal. However, there are some things in our daily lives that do continue unchanged.
 
These things are the most important matters, and they concern our spiritual and sacramental lives. The most important of these is our faithful and faith-filled participation at Mass each Sunday and during the week when possible; the regular celebration of the sacrament of penance; and our daily prayer. Even though the months of June, July and August can give us more opportunities to relax a bit, they also give us more opportunities to devote time to our spiritual lives to fortify them and bring us into closer communion with our Blessed Lord. 
 
In this month of August, the Church celebrates two beautiful feasts of Our Blessed Mother. On August 15, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and on August 22, we celebrate the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Along with all of the other beautiful feasts of the saints which we celebrate in August, we have excellent examples of how we can cultivate and strengthen our spiritual lives and deepen that communion we are called to have with the Lord.
 
When we devote some of our time to our spiritual lives by the frequent reception of the sacraments, personal prayer, adoration and good spiritual reading, we discover soon enough how much we enjoy being with the Lord, Who always responds to us. So, we are entering August with a graced opportunity which we should not pass up. Like Our Blessed Mother, follow Jesus faithfully and allow Him to be your true joy, your consolation and your strength as He was for His Mother.