Yokes.

From Disputations, a bit that I think might help me as I ransack my schedule for a spot to stick some of the Divine Office:

Jesus' yoke is easy and His burden light because they are the means for us to become what His Father created us to be -- viz, His sons and daughters, not His servants or oxen. They lead us to freedom, and with each step we take we become more ourselves. Other yokes, other burdens are unnatural for us, and so weigh us down in ways we weren't created to support.



The hard part... is not bearing Jesus' burden but picking it up in the first place, since to do that requires setting down the unnatural burdens we've gotten used to.

This leads to the obvious question:  Which of my "burdens" weigh me down unnaturally, and which are part of His yoke?

Comments

[Jamie]

Hey, Erin, I don't remember how much you've prayed the Divine Office, but it doesn't take all that long to do a piece of it. The first time I ever prayed Evening Prayer it seemed to require, like, a week to finish it. When we do it with the kids now it takes less than ten minutes. We don't sing a hymn at the beginning but we do allow time for them to add intercessions. Compline is probably my favorite hour and it is really quick. Sigh, I should be more consistent about ending the day with it instead of slogging through the rosary.

This doesn't sound quite like I meant for it to sound (hey! you don't have to spend much time praying at all!), but I am trying to spend less time glued to the computer so I'm going to trust that you know what I mean instead of revising it. :-)