If we were to sum up the times in which we live, someone has described it as living in a precarious time. It=s precarious for a number of reasons. First and foremost is the fact that we have lost our sense of security. With Al-Quida being in almost every place in the world you don=t know if you=ll be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The whole world has lost a certain sense of normal security. So in that sense the time in which we live is precarious. But it=s precarious for other reasons as well. The economy because of the war has certainly put a tremendous debt in our finances as a nation and that is a concern. And the fact that 51% of our marriages fall apart makes our nation precarious because the nation is based upon family life. I suppose you could go down the line with other things as well. But precariousness is, I think, a normal dimension of time just that we don=t always see it. Because time is fragile and it=s not time itself that determines our strength and our foundation.

        So the precariousness of time is really a marvelous time to live. It means that you are more aware of how shaky things are than hopefully you would be more pursing what is not shaky but what is lasting and permanent. I would say to some degree everyone here in the monastery has come to this, that=s one reason why you joined the monastery. You said in your behavior and in the way you persevere, that obviously in life there is nothing very deeply solid and I will seek God. So you have that dimension in your life. So we really need to pay attention to our tradition that starts out the Rule but says that we are tremendous listeners. Listen my son to the precepts or instructions of your master and incline your heart to the words of your loving Father.

        So it means that we are aware, at least we should be, of how we really have God as the goal of our life. If we don=t have God as the goal of our life that should disturb us. After all the Rule says, that we have to incline our heart. When we have our heart involved in our knowledge it=s something like when you meet a situation in which you=re really fearful, we say we have our heart in our throat. Or if we meet a situation in which we=re depressed we say we have our hearts in our boots. Or if we really meet a situation in which we are sympathetic or compassionate, we say, my heart reaches out to you. Recently we picked up Clinton=s word, I feel your pain. I=m not so sure that=s always true.

        The fact is that we must attach to this question of coming to see how we are really setting God as our goal, where our heart is in this question. It doesn=t do any good to know the goal and be able to articulate it if there is no practical way in which it is tested and put into practice. If God is our goal then, we should be able to answer the question, what really makes me happy?  Having a double 4^th of July celebration can make some people very happy. Maybe especially if you like hot dogs, hamburgers, corn, etc. But obviously that kind of happiness is not what we=re talking about. If we really say God is our goal than our happiness should be in doing His will.

        Obviously doing God=s will is not some kind of imposition of a law, or some kind of restriction. It is the discovery that God really is my only happiness and that every time I do His will I am getting closer to Him and embracing Him. That nobody can take from me. No force. Nobody outside me, no situation can take that from me. So if I=m not happy where I am, it=s me. Especially as a monk because we claim God is our goal. So all you need to do is pause, present moment, obviously God wants me to be alive today he keeps me in existence, what=s he asking me to do this point, pray Vespers. I=m happy to pray Vespers! To do his will. So we can go through the whole day and nothing can really stop us from being happy, except ourselves. But the problem is do we really believe that and do we put it into practice so we have moments of really being happy. So that it really wells up in us and we see the graces that come from that kind of a stance in which we taste and see how good the Lord is.

        I stress this because I think we sometimes forget that we have more power than we want to admit. It=s true, we are weak and we are poor and we are sinners. All those things are true. But that=s not the whole truth. We have received the Spirit, we have the power of God=s love and so it=s possible for us to really answer the question what makes me happy?  To really do God=s will, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week and not only that I can speak about experiences which welled up in me to manifest my happiness and therefore commit me to do it all the more.

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