The Rest of God: A Story from the USA

Angela is a parishioner at Mary Queen of the Apostles Parish, in Salem, Massachusetts, USA.

In her early childhood she had already started volunteering with her local parish, a life of service that continued into adulthood. For the last three decades she has offered her gifts in the choir, as a lector, as a leader of a prayer group, with the youth, and says “I was a leader for many things.”

From all signs, she was the ideal volunteer.

But secretly, she was burned out. Her spiritual life was one of duty and striving. “I thought I had to do so much: doesn’t matter that I was overwhelmed, doesn’t matter that I was losing my mental health, doesn’t matter that I was feeling burn out – this is what you needed to do…this is what God wants from you.”

But five years ago, everything changed.