Mondays, the day of the week very few people like. Numerous songs have been written about not liking Mondays, including the classics 'I don't like Mondays' by the Boomtown Rats, 'Rainy days and Mondays' by the Carpenters and 'Manic Monday' by the Bangles. (Hmmm... I hope that list isn't to telling of my musical tastes...) And why would anyone like Monday, because it means the weekend is over and its time to go back to work. So its no surprise that over the last few weeks I have really struggled to sit down at my desk on a Monday morning and get on with the tasks of the week. However, as a ministerial student currently on placement, Monday doesn't just mark the start of the week's work, it is also the day of the week that follows on from one of the most intense days of a minister's working week: Sunday.
Yes, I know the joke that goes ministers only work on a Sunday - if only that were true. Sunday usually comes at the end of a extremely busy week (well it does in the pastorate I'm currently working in), it is the day when you see most of the congregation, so there are a number of pastoral conversations to be had and the number of hours it takes to prepare that act of worship which is only an hour long, seems kind of ridiculous-but if you have every had to write a presentation for a conference then you might start to get the idea of what ministers have to do every week. And when you have more than one service on a Sunday, you really begin to not like Mondays.
So what should you do with Mondays? That was my question in this past week's supervision. Have it as my day off? An option, but what are day offs for? Processing Sunday's events? Possibly not, theological reflection is as much part of the job as everything else. And if issues have arisen during Sunday, leaving to them until later in the week isn't always wise. So what is the answer: Monday is not the day to start on next Sunday's services, but it is the day to clear away the past week; to tidy up the desk and do any reflection that needs doing. Of course, this is not always going to work, and its definitely not going to work this Monday, but I'm liking it as a model to strive for and am looking forward to once again liking Monday mornings.
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