In a letter, Saint Paul of the Cross tells a friend who was ill at home:

Do all you can to be resigned to the Will of God in all the sufferings that God permits, in your tiredness and in all the work you have to do. Keep your heart at peace and be recollected; don’t get upset. If you can go to church, go; if you can’t, stay quietly and contentedly at home; just do the Will of God in the work you have at hand.

This is the kind of advice that, to me, makes so much sense. Peace has value, duties have value, doing the task at hand has immense value. This is the practicality of the saints. It’s not our job to get bogged down with responsibilities that we cannot fulfill (for in such assumption of responsibility there is surely pride), and it is not our job to become frantic about things that cannot be done (for in such a reaction there is surely a lack of theological hope).

We must simply accept the potholes as they come along the road. If we must stop for them, then we must stop. Even if that deprives us of the delights of going to a church or participating in a Mass, so be it. It is God’s Will and our being in God’s Will that counts.

After all, if God prefers us to be on the Cross with him, rather than staring at and adoring him on the Cross, then who are we to argue?