In a modern world fueled by frenzied schedules, filled calendars, and constant busyness, the founder of a Catholic planner proposes restoring the meaning of time to its original roots: a temporary gift from God, oriented around Sundays, that is meant to be used for the sanctification of man.
Catholic convert Nathan Meffert created the Saintmaker planner not only to bring order to his life but also to help measure and promote spiritual growth at the same time, he told Zeale News in an April 17 interview.
“The goal with the planner was to provide a little bit of structure so that people were not just doing their faith on Sunday and forgetting about it, or failing to make it a practical part of their life day to day,” he said. “That was kind of the problem the product was meant to solve. But really, at the end of the day, it’s just the process of conversion.”
Meffert said the planner was originally born from the information he gathered reading self-help and philosophy books before he converted to the Catholic faith in 2019.
The early version of the planner focused on a “practical approach to life” that balanced productivity and moral goals, but once Meffert converted and realized the Catholic liturgical year already provides a structured and sanctified approach to time, the planner became centered on a different priority. He said he began by ordering the calendar around feast days, but quickly discovered Catholicism includes other ways of stewarding time, such as concluding the day with a personal examen. Those methods also became incorporated into the planner.
“So that’s where it all came from,” he said. “The Saintmaker — I don’t know where the name came from, it just kind of came from somewhere. But I think it ended up being a good name because God is the saint maker, and we are doing our best to cooperate with that process.”
Meffert said that although the Saintmaker is designed for Catholic life, it could still be used badly without understanding time correctly. If using planners and calendars results in a mindset of controlling time or “trying to wrestle it to the ground and then tell it what to do,” he said, the risk becomes that the God-given gift of time is being manipulated or rejected.
Even though planners are often used to boost productivity, Meffert said he thinks being productive isn’t a Catholic mindset.
“In American society, we really think constant activity is important, and that constant activity will somehow make us better,” he said. “But there’s nothing virtuous about being constantly busy. You’re not called to be constantly busy. In fact, many of the saints would say that busyness is exactly a sign against holiness.”
He later added, “I think the ideal is that your activity flows out of your interior devotion, as opposed to having all this activity and productivity you’re trying to accomplish.”
Meffert also urged a return to proper rest, saying that in the U.S., leisure time is often seen as laziness.
“That’s not really what it is,” he said, drawing on Joseph Pieper’s book Leisure: The Basis of Culture. “Leisure is more of an active thing that recreates you. It’s actively recreating you through connecting to your family, connecting to nature, connecting to art and culture … and then also connecting to God.”
Time is meant to be sanctified and conformed to God’s plan, Meffert said. He recommended learning how to understand God’s will and cultivating fruitful, Catholic productivity by starting with Sundays, saying that the rest of the week will flow from that communion with Christ.
“If we can get our Sundays really in order, to the point where it’s a celebration and we’re conscientiously making time for the things that dignify our life, give our life meaning, and help us connect with our family and our faith, then I think that acts as a point of reference for the rest of the week,” he said.
Meffert emphasized the need to steward, rather than squander, time, and referenced Jesus’ admonishment that “by their fruits you will know them.”
“If we’re not being good stewards of our time, what is that going to result in? I think it’s going to result in chaos and frustration and anxiety,” he said.
Seeing time as a gift and trying to steward it well helps identify opportunities for growing in virtue, Meffert said.
“Then we’re maybe using a product like the Saintmaker to be a good steward, which allows us to do a few things,” he said. “One, to see God’s will in our life generally. But two, day to day, to see the opportunities we have for charity, for love, for helping to build up the kingdom.”