Busy Bee

I know that I haven't posted anything new in awhile. That's because I have been very busy at work. I work in the financial aid department at a public university and classes start on Monday. I've been inundated with people who seem to have forgotten that you actually have to pay to attend college and they are running around trying to get their bills paid.

I have been thinking about my vocation as a married woman and how that vocation can bring me closer to Christ. It is difficult for me to live in the secular world. Unfortunately I have not been able to find a way around it, but I have to work in the secular culture and I don't particularly care for it. The institution that I work at is a public institution. It is difficult for me to see condoms handed out like candy (literally, they are displayed in pretty glass bowls in all of the bathrooms in the dorms.), and homosexuality flaunted in the public square. Meanwhile, those who are actively Christian seem to have been pushed underground and actually hold their Bible studies at 8am on Thursday mornings almost clandestinely.

I wish that I could somehow remove myself from the secular world. However, I am the one who has a steady income (even though it is very modest) and I carry the insurance since my husband is self employed. I would love nothing more than to be able to work in a Catholic environment, but there are no Catholic employment options in my area.

So, how can I deal with having to work in the secular world? I may not always be successful, but it takes a lot of prayer and reminding myself that I have to be in the world, not of the world. I find so much joy in my home and in my church and as soon as I get off of work I try to retreat so that I can refocus myself back onto Christ.

I look to saints who lived their lives as members of the laity, like Saint Thomas More, Saint Margaret Clitherow, and Blessed Zelie and Louis Martin. They rose above the secular culture and ardently lived out their Catholic faith. I am struggling to do the same.