Life is full of transitions. Whether it is a transition in school, work, family, location, or in your spiritual life, transition can be a time of great joy and great hardship. And many times, when it comes to transition, we experience these joys and challenges simultaneously. But while transitions can be full of stress and anxiety, they can also be viewed from a perspective of grace and providence.

Fr. John Gordon stopped by Morning Air® recently to talk about transitions, and how to approach them as not just times of stress, but as times of growth.

Speaking of different types of transition, Fr. Gordon said, “Often those transitions, those changes, those challenges are about relationships. People moving, a job change, those kinds of things can jar us. How do we mark those transitions? How do we handle them? I think one of the things we need to do is hold on to something that gets us through them.”

Speaking from his own experience, he shared, “I remember when I went to the seminary and I had to move away, it was a whole different set of relationships. But Liturgy of the Hours, because we were praying it at the college seminary and now we were praying it in the major seminary, it was a very helpful piece to transition. It wasn’t just that it was a routine thing that I did there, but it was something I held onto that connected me to God. That was why the transition was so peaceful, because the constant was finding God in the constant.”

Often we move through our days on autopilot, going through the well-worn grooves of our routine. But when that routine is disrupted it feels like a major world shift. Fr. Gordon encouraged listeners to keep their perspective during these times, and suggested that looking outside of yourself during these times can be a big help.

“I think one of the things that we tend to do – or at least I tend to do – is I start to see everything through the lens of me,” he said. “It’s all about me. I may not be much, but I’m all I think about, as it were. And when I go through a transition and my world gets upended, even in some small way, it can become a major event.”

“So having some perspective, having some balance,” he continued. “It’s not about me, there’s a bigger picture. And when I have eyes on the bigger picture, it helps me get through a kind of difficulty. In the grand scheme of things this is not a big deal. … Transitions are not meant to be avoided, they are meant to be embraced in a way that allows us to get beyond them and see beyond ourselves.”

Listen to the full conversation below:

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