{"id":164356,"date":"2025-04-12T01:00:20","date_gmt":"2025-04-12T05:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/?p=164356"},"modified":"2025-03-26T12:46:43","modified_gmt":"2025-03-26T16:46:43","slug":"lent-2025-day-39-the-perrenial-pitfall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/lent-2025-day-39-the-perrenial-pitfall\/","title":{"rendered":"Lent 2025 &#8211; Day 39 &#8211; The Perrenial Pitfall"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"164356\" class=\"elementor elementor-164356\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t<div data-particle_enable=\"false\" data-particle-mobile-disabled=\"false\" class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-cbf6437 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"cbf6437\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-df481d9 elementor-widget elementor-widget-html\" data-id=\"df481d9\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"html.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<iframe class=\"lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/episode\/0KAWIjQzrqhpw3xyBxMUbW?utm_source=generator\" style=\"border-radius:12px\"  width=\"100%\" height=\"152\" frameBorder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-bee7262 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"bee7262\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><b>Day 39\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>The Perennial Pitfall<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is important however that what we propose, with the help of God, should be profoundly rooted in contemplation and prayer. Ours is a time of continual movement which often leads to restlessness, with the risk of \u201cdoing for the sake of doing.\u201d We must resist this temptation by trying \u201cto be\u201d before trying \u201cto do.\u201d In this regard we should recall how Jesus reproved Martha: \u201cYou are anxious and troubled about many things; one thing is needful\u201d (Luke 10:41\u201342).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 St. John Paul II, Novo Millennio Ineunte, 15<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of the perennial pitfalls for Christian apostles is activism. Activism is idolizing our evangelizing activities, behaving and thinking as if we ourselves were the redeemers of the world and not Jesus.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Getting Things Done<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some personalities have a built-in propensity for this \u2014 they just want to get things done and have no patience for delays of any kind. For others the temptation flows more from the depth of their love: They see how much need the world has for God\u2019s grace and thus keep overcommitting themselves, taking on way more responsibilities and projects than they can effectively handle. That is a formula for burnout and can serve as a back door for the devil \u2014 he can no longer make any progress by tempting someone with mortal sin and outright rebellion against God, so he sneaks in under the radar, stimulating thoughts that appear to be holy (You need to do more for the Lord! Don\u2019t you love him? Isn\u2019t there more you can do?) only to use them as a disguise for spiritual pride (I really have to do this, that, and the other thing, even though my health and my family life and my prayer life are collapsing \u2014 if I don\u2019t do all these projects, I will be letting God down, and there is no one else who can possibly do them).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Activism can have truly horrendous consequences. Those who were formerly full of sincere zeal for Christ and his kingdom can become bitter and resentful toward God. They can blame the very people they used to work with in their evangelizing efforts for their own ennui and exhaustion, feeding sentiments of anger as well as violent and destructive criticism. They can even begin to direct their previously apostolic energies toward quixotic causes they believe are necessary to fix all the Church\u2019s problems \u2014 the problems that, they claim, led to the painful burnout they experienced.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Staying Close to the Vine<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One giveaway for creeping activism is usually linked to our prayer life. Prayer always must be our first priority. Without a healthy life of prayer \u2014 including vocal prayer, mental prayer, and the sacraments of the Eucharist and confession \u2014 our relationship with God will surely languish, and then what do we have to give to others? Unless we keep filling our own souls with God\u2019s grace and strength, we quickly run out of the necessary supplies for effective evangelization. As Jesus said: \u201cYou are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot\u201d (Matthew 5:13).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The apostolic fruit our Christian lives are called to bear is a supernatural fruit. When we cut ourselves off from its source by skimping on our prayer life, we invite barrenness (see John 15:4\u20138).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The evangelizing power of our way of living, the effectiveness of our words of witness, and the success of our apostolic works (the \u201cfruit\u201d Jesus speaks of) all depend primarily on God\u2019s grace, because they are all directed toward helping people hear his voice in their lives and respond generously to it. Only a healthy life of prayer can keep that grace flowing through our spiritual veins. Pope Benedict XVI made this point explicitly:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Prayer, as a means of drawing ever new strength from Christ, is concretely and urgently needed. . . . It is time to reaffirm the importance of prayer in the face of the activism and the growing secularism of many Christians engaged in charitable work.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Watching the Stress Meter<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another indicator that activism may be on the rise has to do with the experience of anxiety or stress. When we begin depending excessively on our own efforts in order to build up Christ\u2019s kingdom, the pressure becomes unbearable. Our efforts will never be sufficient to save the world. Our efforts will never be sufficient to earn God\u2019s unconditional love (we already have that as a pure gift from God). If we put those kinds of burdens on ourselves, they constrict our soul and drain it of joy. God is the author of salvation and the real protagonist in every apostolic endeavor. His invitation to join him in the work of redemption flows from the love he already has for us.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In all our evangelizing efforts, a continual purification of our intention is a strong help against falling into the perennial pitfall of activism. What are we truly seeking: to glorify God and help our neighbors and thereby fulfill the true meaning of our lives, or to win popularity contests and achievement competitions? Continually and purposely purifying our intention helps us maintain a healthy balance in our lives, giving proper attention to our circles of influence and keeping us docile to God\u2019s direction. Each of us simply needs to listen closely to what he is asking of us and make a decent effort to do that. We are not responsible for saving the world; we are only responsible for doing our part.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Questions for Personal Reflection or Group Discussion<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What idea in this reflection struck you most and why?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In your own life, what are the signs that usually indicate you are falling into your own perennial pitfall?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What can you do to keep God first and to increase your trust in him so that you don\u2019t put undue pressure on yourself?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What will you do today to regain some balance in your life so God\u2019s grace can flow more freely in you and through you?<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I will take a look at what I do for entertainment and cut out any excesses that don\u2019t reflect the purpose of my life here on earth.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I will reflect on the five most important relationships in my life and see which one is the most neglected. I will make a concrete effort to invest in that relationship this week.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I will look at my commitments. I will divide them into categories \u2014 essential, useful, and superfluous. I will then drop the superfluous commitments and resolve to take sufficient time to reflect before making new commitments.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(Write your own resolution) I will<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Concluding Prayer<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Holy Mary, Mother of God, you have given the world its true light, Jesus, your Son \u2014 the Son of God. You abandoned yourself completely to God\u2019s call and thus became a wellspring of the goodness which flows forth from him. Show us Jesus. Lead us to him. Teach us to know and love him, so that we too can become capable of true love and be fountains of living water in the midst of a thirsting world.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 Pope Benedict XVI<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Day 39\u00a0 The Perennial Pitfall It is important however that what we propose, with the help of God, should be profoundly rooted in contemplation and prayer. Ours is a time [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":359,"featured_media":163128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[6893],"tags":[2965],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-164356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lent-2025","tag-lent"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"","pp_force_visibility":null,"pp_subpost_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_force_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_subpost_visibility":null,"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.8 (Yoast SEO v28.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Lent 2025 - Day 39 - The Perrenial Pitfall - Regnum Christi<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/lent-2025-day-39-the-perrenial-pitfall\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lent 2025 - Day 39 - The Perrenial Pitfall\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Day 39\u00a0 The Perennial Pitfall It is important however that what we propose, with the help of God, should be profoundly rooted in contemplation and prayer. 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He was ordained a Catholic priest in 2003 and earned his doctorate in moral theology in 2010. He provided spiritual support on the set of Mel Gibson\u2019s\u00a0The Passion of the Christ\u00a0while researching the 2005 Catholic best seller,\u00a0Inside the Passion, the only authorized, behind-the-scenes explanation of the film. Fr. John has contributed news commentary regarding religious issues on NBC, CNN, Fox, and the BBC. He also served as the English-language press liaison for the Vatican\u2019s 2005 Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist. His most widely known books are The Better Part: A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer and 60 Days to Becoming a Missionary Disciple. His most recent book is\u00a0Spiritual But Not Religious: The Search for Meaning in a Material World. Fr. John resides in Atlanta and serves as Territorial Vicar for the Legionaries of Christ. See all books, Regnum Christi Essays, Retreat Guides, posts, and online classes from Fr. 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John Bartunek, LC","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/622fd36594e05daecbf3cb6f50d7151c3066ae3991815fa200dc7c1865bc6a7e?s=96&d=blank&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/622fd36594e05daecbf3cb6f50d7151c3066ae3991815fa200dc7c1865bc6a7e?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/622fd36594e05daecbf3cb6f50d7151c3066ae3991815fa200dc7c1865bc6a7e?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Fr. John Bartunek, LC"},"description":"Fr. John Bartunek, LC, S.Th.D, received his BA in History from Stanford University in 1990. He comes from an evangelical Christian background and became a member of the Catholic Church in 1991. After college, he worked as a high school history teacher, drama director, and baseball coach. He then spent a year as a professional actor in Chicago before entering the religious Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ in 1993. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 2003 and earned his doctorate in moral theology in 2010. He provided spiritual support on the set of Mel Gibson\u2019s\u00a0The Passion of the Christ\u00a0while researching the 2005 Catholic best seller,\u00a0Inside the Passion, the only authorized, behind-the-scenes explanation of the film. Fr. John has contributed news commentary regarding religious issues on NBC, CNN, Fox, and the BBC. He also served as the English-language press liaison for the Vatican\u2019s 2005 Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist. His most widely known books are The Better Part: A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer and 60 Days to Becoming a Missionary Disciple. His most recent book is\u00a0Spiritual But Not Religious: The Search for Meaning in a Material World. Fr. John resides in Atlanta and serves as Territorial Vicar for the Legionaries of Christ. See all books, Regnum Christi Essays, Retreat Guides, posts, and online classes from Fr. John Bartunek, LC.","url":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/author\/jbartunek\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/359"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164356"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=164356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}