From Psalm 1, read for today’s Mass:
Blessed the man who follows not
the counsel of the wicked
Nor walks in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the company of the insolent,
But delights in the law of the LORD
and meditates on his law day and night.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Psalm 1 begins the whole book of 150 psalms, and it suggests making a little inventory. Ask yourself whether you are satisfied with your life’s direction, or are you ready to realize you are just being buffeted about, following this or that little scrap of worldly wisdom or those suggestions of the (currently) successful and worldly-wise, or merely breathing the same air as the ironic and cynical so beloved of TV or online posting? How is that working for you?
The psalmist suggests a different resource–the “law” of the Lord, the “instruction” or the “way” the Lord invites people to take to walk with him. To meditate upon that “way” “day and night.” Begin (or re-begin, or re-re-begin) very simply. At the beginning of the day, at the beginning of the night, simply ask him, “Lord, what is one thing you want me to do? Make one thing clear and with your help I will do it.” What he will ask will likely surprise you. It will be good, not evil. It will be a first step in reorienting your hope away from tedious worldliness to the only source of Life.
With the Lord we will have many “re-beginnings” –at least Scripture and the lives of the saints illustrate it so.