Reflections for Busy People: Making Time for Ourselves…

Fr. Gerald O’Collins is a highly respected theologian whose specialty is Christology. He is a prolific author and his books on the Paschal Mystery, the central tenet of our faith, are among the best ever written. But in “Reflections for Busy People,” he does not give us lofty theology. Rather the focus is on down-to-earth comments about living our daily Christian lives. Fr. O’Collins begins with a chapter called “The Hungers of the Human Heart.” He returns to this theme at the end and identifies these hungers as life, meaning, love. “We crave for a life that is utterly full and will never end; we search for meaning that will throw light on everything; we hunger for perfect love that will be totally satisfying” (p. 116). The theme he develops is that we fulfill these hungers by centering ourselves in God, in Jesus, in the Holy Spirit. The subtitle of the book is “Making Time for Ourselves, Jesus, and God.” One of the Salesian missions often given in parishes has the title, “Making Time for God in A Busy World.” That could very well sum up Fr. O’Collins’ book. He never explicitly mentions Saint Francis de Sales or any of the Salesian saints. But if I were asked to describe the spirituality of “Reflections,” these adjectives come to mind: gentle, joyful, optimistic, prayerful, Christ-centered. They are the very adjectives one would use to describe Saint Francis de Sales. So the book is highly recommended as having the Salesian spirit even if it is not explicitly Salesian. Fr. Roland Calvert, OSFS