Best Advent Ever is made possible by viewers like you. 

You're awesome. 

The speed of joy is:

Balanced.

Timeless.

Fruitful.

Inspiring.

Natural.

Welcome back to Best Advent Ever. Writing <em>Slowing Down the Speed of Joy</em> was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. It is the book that I have most enjoyed writing. Many of the books I've written over the past 30 years, I've written under tremendous pressure. I've written under the challenge of deadlines. I've written while on the road in hotels and on airplanes. And I decided when I started writing <em>Slowing Down the Speed of Joy</em>, that it was something I wanted to enjoy. It was something that I wanted to take my time with. And honestly, I didn't want to stop writing it when it was finished. And books are never finished.

At some point, you have to decide you're finished, but I didn't want to finish this one. I was enjoying it so much. And the section we're about to go into, which is primarily about the idea of leisure. We have a tragically mistaken notion of leisure in our culture. And the world's idea of leisure is radically different to God's idea of leisure. And so perhaps we begin by asking ourselves the question, what is leisure?

Leisure is defined by dictionaries as free time and use of time for enjoyment. But it is so much more than that. We mistakenly believe that leisure is about not having to work. We think it's time to do nothing or time to do whatever we want. But it is so much more than that. Leisure is not merely a break from work so that we can get re-energized to go back to work. But consciously or unconsciously, many people believe this is the purpose of leisure. There are concepts in the book that we won't cover here in our time together. But this thinking is the fruit of an obsession with efficiency, an obsession with productivity, and really a culture that idolizes efficiency and productivity, a culture where we are constantly rewarded, the more efficient we get, the more productive we get.

But productivity and efficiency are not the meaning and purpose of our lives. Human flourishing is God's dream for us and becoming saints is the meaning and purpose of our lives. And so is productivity bad? No, productivity is not bad. Is efficiency bad? No, it's not bad. Productivity and efficiency are good to the extent that they encourage human flourishing and to the extent that they help us become saints. When productivity and efficiency impede our human flourishing and prevent our sanctity, that's when we've crossed the line.

And so as with so many things in this incredible world that God created for us, things have value very often based on how we use them, and how we apply them to our lives. Joseph Pieper in his great work, Leisure the Basis of Culture, which is a difficult read, to be honest. It's a philosophical text, and it was written in 1948. Pieper was a German philosopher, and as you can imagine, not many people were interested in listening to a German philosopher in 1948. The Second World War has just finished. And so this incredible work by Pieper really was ignored for a long, long time, but it is a profound piece of work.

And the ideas in it had an enormous influence on me. I probably read it in my early 20s for the first time. It's one of those books that I return to every year. I have a lot of books. I have 6,000 books. But in my study where I write at home, I have 100 books, right around 100 books. And there are books I refer to all the time. They're books I will read many of them every year, or I'll pick up, and I'll read a chapter of them every year. And this is one of those books. Peiper provided this richer, more complete definition of leisure.

He wrote, "Leisure is an attitude of mind and a condition of the soul that fosters a capacity to receive the reality of the world." Think about that. The capacity to receive the reality of the world. Very often we ignore reality. Very often we say, "Oh, this shouldn't be this way." Well, it is that way. And maybe it shouldn't be that way, or maybe that's not the perfect way, but we fight against reality. And what is Pieper saying? Develop the capacity to receive reality.

And the reality of God's created world, fully receive that reality, you think about it, okay, how do we develop the capacity to fully receive the reality of God's created world, to fully experience this incredible life? You look at all of Catholic spirituality. It's all designed in some way to help us accomplish that. You think about we go to mass, you think about routine of daily prayer, you think about reflecting on the Scriptures, you think about the life of the church. It is all designed to expand our capacity to experience the reality of this world, of God's incredible created nature, and also to expand our capacity to experience self, God, and others.

And that's an incredible thing. And of course, leisure, as Pieper is explaining, also does that. It's a condition of the soul that fosters a capacity to receive the reality of the world. When we read Pieper's definition, it becomes clear immediately that leisure is a gift. It's something we receive, not something we take or seize. The crucial question becomes, how do we open ourselves to receive the gifts leisure yearns to lavish upon us? And of course, all of Catholic spirituality does that. It opens ourselves to receive the gifts that God wants to lavish upon us. And one of those gifts or one of those collections of gifts is leisure. And so when we take time to pray, when we step out of the world, take time to pray, what are we doing? We're opening ourselves so that God can lavish His gifts upon us. When we go to Mass, what we're doing, we're opening ourselves so that God can lavish His gifts upon us. Lavish. True leisure is a condition of the soul, not the absence of work. You think about that, a culture defines leisure as the absence of work. People are saying true leisure is a condition of the soul, not the absence of work. It isn't doing nothing. It is doing something, but very specific types of activity, which allow us to adopt an attitude of inward calm. Leisure teaches us to become a person who is essentially oriented toward the whole of reality. The whole of reality. Your complete self, the total self of the people you love, the total experience of the created world, and a complete and total absolute experience of God. When you reflect upon it, it's brilliant. It is absolutely brilliant. And people goes on to say that the highest form of leisure is worship of God. The highest form of leisure is worship of God.

And so, in our hearts, in our minds, in our souls, let us lay down before God today and worship Him. Not because He gave us this great life and not because He gave us this great world, just because God is who God is worthy of awe and wonder and worship. If you haven't picked up a copy of the book yet, I really encourage you to do so, to reflect upon it, and to grab a copy of the Limited Edition Journal, <em>Slowing Down to the Speed of Joy</em>. Allow God to open you to new realities, to the totality, the whole experience of life that he wants to give you. God bless you. Have a great day, and remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.

Thank you, Ambassadors. You are changing the world. See you tomorrow.

Have a great day.

Have a great day.

Have a great day.

Have a great day.

Have a great day. Have a great day. Have a great day.

Bye-bye.

Have a great day.

Have a great day.

Have a great day.

Have a great day.

Have a great day.

Bye-bye.

Simon, come sit.

I love you.

Have a great day.

Have a great day.

Come sit.

Have a great day.

Have a great day.

See you next time. Bye. Have a great day.