My
spiritual director—who, as fate would have it, is on vacation this
month (like the proverbial New York City psychiatrists, spiritual
directors apparently take off most of July and August)—gave me a
marvelous piece of advice last month when I complained of stress.
He is a humble priest in his seventies who punctuates his admonitions with the dangling question “yes?”
“Remember,” he said, “that ’stress’ is not a Catholic word, yes?
“The Catholic word is ‘Cross.’”