Entrust Your Day to the Lord
by Fr. Eamonn Bourke

“I fervently beg the Lord to strengthen my faith so that in my drab, everyday life I will not be guided by human dispositions, but by those of the spirit. Oh, how everything drags man towards the earth! But lively faith maintains the soul in the higher regions and assigns self-love its proper place; that is to say the lowest one .” (St. Faustina’s Diary 210)

Depressing Commercial News
Listening to the commercial news broadcasters every day, you would form the impression that we live in a dark sinister world, where there are no good and decent people left. After we watch the news, we are left anxious and even a little depressed as there seems to be nothing but bad news everywhere. People dying, violence, etc, often fill our screens and we wonder what it’s all about. Newspapers, TV or radio rarely bring good news. The more dramatic the better. “If it bleeds it leads” as the newspaper adage goes. News editors need people to read or listen to what they’re selling or else they’re out of a job.

Negative Aggressive News
A few years ago, I was listening to a certain national radio station in the morning as was my habit. The alarm clock would go off and the news would go on. This was my morning routine. I began to notice that after listing to that early morning program, especially the way in which they used to interview or should I say interrogate their interviewees that it put me in a bad mood and I was starting the day on a negative footing. They seemed to have nothing good to say about anything. I began to understand what Saint Faustina meant when she says, ‘Oh, how everything drags a man towards the earth’. Listening to this early morning program was dragging me towards the earth!

Start with a Prayer
I remember the day I decided ‘No, I’m not going to begin the day this way anymore’. Instead of beginning every day this way, I’m going to avoid this news program and begin my day with prayer instead’. I begin with a prayer entrusting my day and everything that happens in my day to the Lord. I decided that as soon as I would wake, my first action would be to pray. I would thank the Lord for all His graces and blessings, especially for the gift of this new day. I would ask the Lord for the strength I would need to face whatever the day would send me and I would pray for those people in my life who are important to me and indeed the needs of the world. I would entrust my day to the Lord.

More in Harmony with God
I began to be amazed how different my days started from then on. Instead of starting the day anxiously, I started it with hope and joy and this affected how the rest of the day would go. I would pick up whatever important news was happening around the world as the day progressed. I began to discover that instead of becoming out of touch with what was going on in the world, I was more in harmony with the world or to put it in another way, I was more in harmony with God’s plan for the world.

Joy in Life Everyday
Beginning the day with prayer tunes you into the Holy Spirit of God. It allows the Spirit of God to guide you so that you are not guided only by human dispositions. Beginning each day with prayer opens you up to the possibilities and opportunities that God has in store for you.

Prayer places you in the presence of a loving and caring God who wants to bless and fill us with every grace that we need for each day. Beginning your day in this way helps to sustain a lively faith that maintains the soul in the higher regions. Beginning your day in this way puts the focus not on yourself or the world but on God. What better way could you start your day?