Put the Oxygen Mask On Yourself First

Anyone who has ever been on a plane or watched a movie about planes knows that before take-off there are several safety warnings. One of them is that, in the event of cabin depressurization, oxygen masks fall from the ceiling and the advice is to put the mask on yourself first and then help the people around you. The explanation is quite simple: If you don't guarantee oxygen for yourself first, you won't be able to help anyone. 

Faith is our oxygen mask 
We can transfer these guidelines to our spiritual life. If you don't seek the oxygen of faith by practicing piety and attending the sacraments, you can die spiritually, and you won't be able to help anyone else. This simple guideline, which may even seem silly because it is so obvious, can go unnoticed in our hectic lives. 

We often worry about the spiritual life of others, we want to help, we want that person we love to have a livelier faith again, to go to church again, but we ourselves neglect our spiritual life and end up running out of oxygen. This advice applies to everyone, but especially to mothers. 

As mothers, we're always worried about our children, whether it's material issues (studies, work, friendships, or love relationships) or spiritual issues, such as how our children live out the faith we've passed on to them. We often forget that the best thing we can provide for them, especially once they've grown up, is our example. 

Human beings learn by imitating 
From an early age, human beings learn by imitation. We learned to speak by listening to our mothers and other people speak; we learned to walk when they took our hands, lifted us up, and walked with us; and so it is with everything that is essential to our lives. What we learn by doing together with someone else, we never forget.  

It's no different in the life of faith. We teach our children to pray, to go to Mass, and we go with them. But there comes a time when they need to do it on their own, without our help. They need to have a childlike relationship with God the Father; after all, God doesn't have grandchildren, only children. And the best way we can help them is by setting an example ourselves of how a strong and abundant spiritual life helps us in all the circumstances of our lives, especially in difficult times. 

The importance of example 
It's important that our children and the people who live with us know that we pray; that they see us praying, going to confession, receiving the Eucharist. It's not a question of showing off, of wanting to show how much you do, but simply of setting a good example. Even when children are young, it's important for them to know that Mom and Dad need a few minutes a day to pray, to connect with God. This will show them the importance of prayer.  

In addition to example, our constancy in prayer, especially meditative prayer where we establish a real dialogue with God and try to listen to Him speaking to us through the events of our daily lives, is what will give us strength, give us oxygen, to be able to face our own challenges and help all those who need our help. Attending the sacraments of Confession and the Eucharist invigorates our souls and makes us more able to see divine providence at work, guiding us in the best way to help those we love. 

So, let's make a good examination of conscience about how our spiritual life is going, whether we are giving it priority as our oxygen mask and see where we can improve. Let's ask for the ever-ready help of our beloved Mother and Queen so that in the new year we can strengthen our inner life and thus be better able to help all those we love.