{"id":6103,"date":"2012-12-03T15:57:02","date_gmt":"2012-12-03T20:57:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/?p=6103"},"modified":"2012-12-03T15:57:02","modified_gmt":"2012-12-03T20:57:02","slug":"for-i-am-a-woman-under-authority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/12\/for-i-am-a-woman-under-authority.html","title":{"rendered":"For I am a Woman Under Authority"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This weekend, I attended a silent retreat. \u00a0The timing of the retreat on Saturday made it a good time to reflect on preparations for Advent (and plenty of other things \u2014 the retreat ran from 9am-6pm, and my friends offline will know it was only by the grace of God that I kept my motormouth from running all that time). \u00a0The Advent season is similar to Lent, a time of reflection, purification, and anticipation before a great feast. \u00a0So, many Catholics take on Advent fasts the same way they do at Lent.<\/p>\n

Ideally, in Lent, you give something up\u00a0and<\/em> take something on. \u00a0Maybe you give the money you would have spent on coffee to the poor, maybe the time you would have spent on TvTropes is where you make space for a daily Rosary. \u00a0Since I\u2019ve just entered the Church, I\u2019m hesitant to label any spiritual practice I\u2019m taking on as special for Advent. \u00a0But, during the retreat, I did discern a sacrifice that it might be salutary to make.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m going to go to bed by 1am on average<\/em>\u00a0during Advent.<\/em><\/p>\n

I graduated college only a year and a half ago, and my body happily accepted more sleep when I became an adult with regular hours. \u00a0(Believe me, you don\u2019t want to know how much I slept in college). \u00a0But it\u2019s still a good deal later than most people seem to stay up.<\/p>\n

The thing I really like about late hours is the\u00a0flexibility<\/em> of them. \u00a0As long as I\u2019m awake and alert feeling, there\u2019s always more time to get things done. \u00a0It doesn\u2019t necessarily take a toll on my life (thankfully, I seem to need less sleep than average), but it\u2019s not great having that time in the open-ended evening instead of the morning.<\/p>\n

Jenifer Fulwiler has written about how praying the Liturgy of the Hours made her freer by letting her work within limits. \u00a0The prayers introduced hard stops to her schedule<\/a>, non-negotiable limits that made her think more about which and how many projects to take on. \u00a0She was recently struck by the way that monastic communities<\/a> live out this freedom-through-limits idea.<\/p>\n

And since I\u2019ve been thinking about this, the Gospel reading at Mass today caught my ear. \u00a0Jesus\u2019s encounter with the centurion in Matthew 8:5-11<\/a>\u00a0is the source of a revision in the missal (for non-Catholics, a pre-Eucharist prayer was changed from \u201cLord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed\u201d to \u201cLord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed\u201d). \u00a0But I\u2019m more interested in the part that comes right after:<\/p>\n

The centurion said in reply,
\n\u201cLord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof;
\nonly say the word and my servant will be healed.
\nFor I too am a man subject to authority,
\nwith soldiers subject to me.
\nAnd I say to one, \u2018Go,\u2019 and he goes;
\nand to another, \u2018Come here,\u2019 and he comes;
\nand to my slave, \u2018Do this,\u2019 and he does it.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I like whatever superpowers accrue to me (I read a lot faster than average), but enjoying a strength is different than denying \u00a0a limit. \u00a0So I\u2019d rather shift my waking time to the morning, when I\u2019m much more aware of my constraints than leave it flapping around in the evening, when I don\u2019t feel accountable to anyone or anything. \u00a0(Ok, technically I\u2019m still at the \u201cI want to want this<\/a>\u201d stage, but I\u2019m working on it).<\/p>\n

The upshot of all of this is that the following scene took place in my living room last night.<\/p>\n

(glances at clock, notices it is 12:57) \u00a0\u201cShoot!\u201d \u00a0(hastily closes laptop) \u00a0\u201cI\u2019m going to go brush my teeth really\u00a0really\u00a0<\/em>fast!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPerverse incentives, much?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPERVERSE INCENTIIIIVES!<\/em>\u201d (while taking the stairs two at a time)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ora pro me.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

P.S. The way I\u2019m keeping track of all this is a website called Beeminder, that makes it easy to track progress toward a goal. \u00a0(This is how I keep track of the slowly increasing number of push-ups I do per day, for example). \u00a0In this case, since Beeminder lets you enter times to track, I\u2019m just putting in the last time I see on my phone before I lie down with my eyes closed and the lights off. \u00a0(Since 1am is worse than 12:59am, I just enter post 1am times as 13:03 or whatever). \u00a0And then Beeminder makes a pretty graph<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Oh, and I get a free pass on the night of the\u00a0<\/em>Hobbit midnight premiere. \u00a0Just cause.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This weekend, I attended a silent retreat. \u00a0The timing of the retreat on Saturday made it a good time to reflect on preparations for Advent (and plenty of other things \u2014 the retreat ran from 9am-6pm, and my friends offline will know it was only by the grace of God that I kept my motormouth […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":6105,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[44,39],"class_list":["post-6103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spiritual-practice","tag-bible-study","tag-freedom-means-choosing-a-master"],"yoast_head":"\nFor I am a Woman Under Authority<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This weekend, I attended a silent retreat. \u00a0The timing of the retreat on Saturday made it a good time to reflect on preparations for Advent (and plenty of\" \/>\n<meta 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