uh quarantine haircuts need to be a
thing
actually quarantine gone needs to be a
thing so haircuts can be a thing
once again hi my name's father mike
schmitz and this is ascension presents
i'm not sure if you're someone who gets
easily annoyed um i know that there was
a time in my life when i was
like really easy easily annoyed i have a
number of pet peeves one of those pet
peeves my um
my family and some good friends know
about this like i hate hate just like
people who chew with their mouth open
like that just um anyone it doesn't
matter who you are
unless maybe you're a child in which
case i'm like oh that's kind of cute
whatever
i've gotten better at dealing with it
another thing that was annoying i
remember
this happening all of the time in
seminary um we'd be in the chapel maybe
you've been there where it's like the
adoration chapel you're kind of close to
each other
it's very very quiet no one's supposed
to no one is supposed to be making any
noise in this place they're supposed to
be
silent in adoration and they're like no
but i'm praying the rosary so i need to
like
or even maybe not even worse but kind of
just as bad where all you hear is
right you hear that they're like dude
you don't have to mouth the words and
getting like so
interiorly violently aggravated you know
and you want to be that person who looks
right maybe this happens to you like on
an airplane
or wherever it is you want to be you
want to maybe you're driving
and you see that person do the wrong
thing and you want to look you want to
look over at them
so that they know they're dumb like
it's not because they're dumb and they
might have done something silly or i
might yes be annoyed by the fact that
they're making noises with their mouths
when everyone in the room should be
quiet
or that they're chewing with their mouth
open right
but when it comes to being annoyed
i think one of the first steps that i
had to learn to get past a lot of this
that's just
it's such small stuff writes petty
things
the thing i had to learn was that it is
a choice to be annoyed
like if i'm annoyed by what someone else
is doing that's because i
chose to be annoyed and if any of us who
are if you're watching this listening to
this
and if you find yourself often becoming
annoyed
maybe you need to hear this truth and i
say it is a truth
being annoyed is a choice and i know
it's a choice why
because well here's one one proof that
being annoyed is choice we can have two
different people
do the exact same thing and with one
person doing the exact same thing
we're like we're fine with that doesn't
bother me at all no actually maybe it's
even adorable maybe it's even funny
but a different person that maybe i
don't like
does the exact same thing and i'm like
what the
heck what the heck i can't even believe
this person would do this kind of thing
i'm so annoyed by them
can you believe this person who said
this or did this oh
why was it fine when person a did it but
i'm super annoyed person b
did it it's because i chose to be
annoyed
because being annoyed is a choice in
fact i remember hearing the story about
these
this group of men who were pows in
vietnam they
were put into a very very small room um
with basically their quarters when they
were not kind of allowed
outside of this shack they were in this
shack it was very very small
terrible conditions where they basically
had a in order to sleep they kind of had
to
they had to sleep touching each other
essentially so really really cramped
conditions
and whenever a new person arrived they
would say okay here's our agreement the
agreement of all these men who are
living in this very very small
um environment they said we've agreed
we've decided to agree that if i become
annoyed with something you do
like you're picking your toenails your
whatever the things that could be
annoying right i can go down the list
but let's just spare ourselves from that
if i'm being annoyed by something that
you're doing
i'm going to take responsibility and say
that's my fault
that if i'm annoyed with you that's my
fault
and i think that's such a such a freeing
kind of a thing
um i mean back in the chapel the
person's making noise with their mouth
when it's supposed to be quiet
like well if i'm annoyed by that why
would i let that steal my peace
if someone does something terrible on
the road that you know cut me off or
whatever the thing is like yeah that
could be wrong
but why let that steal my peace like i
can acknowledge that it's wrong
but why would i let that lead me to a
place i don't like being annoyed
so why would i choose to be annoyed
being annoyed
is a choice i think there's three
potential responses to annoyance
one is i can rise above it that's the
first one well sorry there's four
one is i can just be annoyed like i can
say you need to stop that or else i'm
my day is ruined okay that's one but the
positive ones are
i can rise above it i can actively
choose to rise above this thing
um i can exercise patience and i can
exercise understanding
some of the people that i've been around
who have shown chewed child
chewed their food with their mouths open
are people who
i'm like what the heck you know when i
when i did express this they were like
well my nose is stuffed i can't breathe
if i don't
you know have my mouth open i'm like oh
okay well i can i can choose to rise
above this i can choose exercise
patients i can choose to be merciful
the second thing is i was thinking about
this in terms of we were in
our chapel a bit earlier this week and
the smoke alarm
in another room was going off it was
beeping and it was one of those
pieces where i was that's what made me
think of this whole thing about
annoyance because i was kind of getting
annoyed but i was like no i don't need
to be annoyed
um the second thing i could do so first
thing obviously is i get annoyed second
thing i rise above it the third thing
is i can do something about it in fact
that's why the smoke alarm starts
beeping you know when the battery is
getting low
it starts beeping and like that is so
annoying well
i can do something about it like i can i
can allow this
feeling of distress inside of me this
feeling of annoyance
to um move me in a positive way
to address this in a positive way that
makes sense okay so first i can give
into the annoyance do not recommend
number two rise above it exercise
patience and mercy and compassion all
these things
number three do something about it like
let it move you to positive action
and the fourth thing is based off of a
quote from i think saint jose maria
escriva
saying how's maria esquivas said this he
said never say that person annoys me
simply say that person sanctifies me
because you know in in our world we're
with our fallen hearts our broken human
nature
we always want what we want right like i
i want what i want and if you're doing
something i don't like well it annoys me
but it's me having to put up with
someone else
someone else's will someone else's
decision someone else's choices
but to be able to let go of my will
let go of my desire let go of what i
would prefer in this moment
is a dying to solve even if it's a small
dying to self
so it isn't just annoying it's
potentially sanctifying
so if i'm willing to say yeah no i yeah
i wouldn't i would like it to be
otherwise
but you know what it's not otherwise
lord use this i mean again it can be
super small
but the lord uses great things and uses
small things
so annoyance or being annoyed
is a choice i can one choose to give
into it
i can two rise above it i can three
do something about it and i can four
allow it to sanctify me
next time you get annoyed which might be
because this video is going on for so
darn long choose one of those four or
maybe choose
number two three and four anyways from
us here at ascension presents my name's
father mike
god bless maybe that wink thing's
annoying i don't know maybe the
whatever annoying i don't even know all
the annoying things that i probably do
with my life
i don't even know man the list goes on
and on
yeesh