Getting To Know God

Recently on The Catholic Guy podcast (#181) a wise seminarian said something to the effect of "If you were trying to get to know your future spouse and you only spent one hour once a week with them, you wouldn't get to know them on a very deep level. The same is true for God." If we only go to church on Sunday, but we don't delve into the Scripture or we don't go to Adoration or confession or any number of the wonderful ways in which we can connect with Our Lord, how will we ever get to know Him?
In the last few weeks I have been feeling distant from Him. I try to go to mass as often as I can, but the reality is that I rush to get there, we go through the mass and then I have to leave right away. You can kiss your spouse every day, but if you don't talk to them, that isn't much of a marriage, is it? And sure, I can talk to Jesus all day long throughout the day, but there is a difference (at least for me) when I am in His presence.
I need to be with him more.
I complain now and then that our diocese doesn't do enough to help the parishioners form their relationship with Christ. One of these things is that while many parishes hold Eucharistic Adoration every Friday (some only on the first Friday), it is usually during the day when  most people are working. It is obvious from mass attendance and attendance of these activities that many older, retired people are still active in The Church, but how can we get our young people to form a relationship with Him when we make it so difficult for them to participate? The same goes for Confession. Don't even get me started on the need for more confessional availability. In the end though I know that it comes down to us- the laity. WE ARE THE CHURCH. If we see a need, we need to somehow fill it. So, for me that means I have to seek out these things for myself. I am very blessed that in our diocese we have the Franciscan Friars of The Immaculate who hold perpetual Adoration in their chapel.

Often when I say to myself "I wish we had Adoration more often!" that little voice in my heart says "The Franciscans..." and I say "But it's so out of the way!" and then that little voice chastises me and says "Is Jesus ever actually too out of the way?!" And it's true. SO. I'm going to make it a goal of mine to go to mass as often as possible, but also to get up to Griswold and sit with Jesus at least once a week. Date night, I think I'll call it. ;-)