Zeal and Fervor

I’ve been thinking more about “fervor” since finishing my reading on St. Dominic last week.  My husband and I are always trying to sort out our life.  It seems, at times, to be one long series of transitions without time to ever settle into a boring, predictable routine.  This is, in part, objectively true.  The schedule of an academic is always changing.  Two different semesters each year with long breaks at Christmas and over the summer.  Throw in lots of moves and a baby every couple years and we are in a state of constant transition.

But that’s not a great place to live and we are continually frustrated by the fact that we have a lot of things we’d like to be doing but aren’t.  It’s very difficult for us to prioritize the various competing goods in our life.  So it is that we are often searching for a motivating idea of some kind.  I know that our faith tradition gives us plenty to work with already and I’m not discounting any of that.  In fact, I think we often get ourselves in trouble when we try to strike out too forcefully on our own path.  But the fact remains that we have discerned through years of prayer and conversation and living life together that there are various things, large and small, that we feel called to do in our family, our parish, our community.  But despite feeling that “call” we are still sorely lacking in motivation when it comes to putting all the pieces in order.

We have some years adopted a practice of having a “word” for the year.  The last two years (no surprise!) I’ve had trouble settling on an idea to guide my prayer and reading and meditation through the year.  Both times my husband has suggested the word “zeal” but it never did it for me.  Though it’s already most of the way through February, I think I’ve decided to adopt for this year the word “fervor”.  Aren’t they the same?  The dictionary lists them as synonyms and the official definitions are very similar.  But there is a subtle difference, at least in the way I hear the two words.  Zeal to me connotes activity, and enthusiastic promotion of an idea without regard to audience or situation.  Fervor, on the other hand, connotes contemplation.  Rather than indiscriminately enthusiastic action it is intense feeling.

(Now, I don’t mean to start co-opting words and putting my own spin on them just to make them say what I want.  I may be splitting hairs here–the Bible often seems to equate the two–but let’s just agree to be okay with the fact that I’ve finally become comfortable with integrating a good idea into my life.)

I’m going to one even further and say that, when interacting with the world, the goal, for the zealot, is to be right and to convince the other person of it.   Whereas the fervent person is motivated by charity.  The fervent person wants to love as God loves.  The fervent person has, as Guy Bedouelle says, “a dynamism that begets joy.”  And this joy-begetting fervor seasons and leavens all one does.  And all fueled by charity.

So, my word for the year:  fervor.  Past words of the year have been academic (Mary, Eucharist, and Incarnation) or practical (Homemaking) so this is quite a different idea.  But I’m confident I won’t grow bored trying to cultivate charity, beget joy, and live fervently.