A certain priest once happened upon a man who was caring very devotedly for his horse. Impressed by such hard work, the priest wondered aloud and asked:

"My friend, how much time does it take you every day to keep your horse in such fine condition?"

"About two hours," he replied.

The priest glanced at the admirable looking animal. Yes, it was easy to see where quite a bit of time was dedicated to its care. That being the case… the priest had another question.

"Now tell me, just as frankly, how much time do you give every day to the care of your soul?"

The man paused a moment, and then answered in all sincerity.

"Well, to tell the truth, not much. Every morning I bless myself, and I say an ‘Our Father’, sometimes I add a ‘Hail Mary,’ and I never miss Mass on Sundays."

The priest said,

"Since this is the case, if I belonged to you, I would rather be your horse than your soul."

It gave the man something to think about. He had proven with his horse that he could take extremely good care of what belonged to him. The question then, to remember each day, was if proper care was given to the most precious possession every human has… the soul.

Just like our bodies, our souls need to be fed, cleaned and exercised… every day. To skip meals makes your body weak. To stay dirty will make your body ill. So too does the soul suffer when it is not given daily attention.

So how do we care for our souls? Quite simply, we need God, as much as we need food and air. He is the life of our souls, and to sustain that life we need prayer.

To grow that life we need spiritual exercise and chances to exercise our soul will come every day; chances to practice virtue. Doing the right thing or making a sacrifice is a way of exercising our spiritual muscles. The more you use your muscles, the stronger they become. But if you never use them for anything then they will weaken.

Prayer helps sustain us by obtaining the graces we need to keep alive and healthy - that is, to be good, especially when it’s hard. And as the saints tell us, the best prayer is often simply talking to God in our own words, as we would talk to our best friend - for God is the best Friend we could ever have. Just as He is the Source of all life, He is also the Source of all true happiness… and He wants to share that happiness with us forever.

That is why He gave us souls - so that we may live forever. But we must care for this responsibility - and with far greater diligence than we take care of anything else in our life. We must give our soul the attention it needs every day so that, in keeping the soul alive and well, we may enjoy what we were born for… to be happy with God in Heaven for all eternity.