Seaching for the Spirit

   “I saw the Spirit come down like a dove from the sky and remain upon him." Jn 1:32

The Spirit of God is powerful and transforming, and when John the Baptist sees the spirit in the form of a dove descend and remain upon the Lord, he knows Jesus is the Messiah, the promised one. What is more remarkable is that this same spirit is promised to and comes upon us as well. While it is true that we can turn away from or reject the transforming power of the Spirit, it is God's desire that we accept and live in, with and through the Spirit.

It can be difficult and dangerous to speak of God's desire, but when we carefully read the scriptures and the tradition of the church, we can speak confidently. God wants to be near us. He sends prophets our way and eventually his own Son to demonstrate that he desires our salvation. God wants to be with us, to love us totally and to guide us to the fullness of life.

Paying attention to the Spirit around us, within us and among us will allow us to see God's love and know God's desire not only for us but for all creation.

Today, look for signs of the Spirit in your everyday life.

Where do you most often "see" God's Spirit?

St Anthony, Abbott

  "Forever I will sing the goodness of the Lord." Ps 89

No matter how far Anthony went into the desert, people followed and found him. Though unlettered, he was gifted with so much wisdom that many were drawn to him, hoping to absorb some of what he had learned in silence and solitude. Reputed to have lived for twenty years in a single walled room, Anthony grew in faith and devotion. While some thought that the isolation he sought would drive him crazy, Anthony grew more quiet and serene because he had found God and himself in the silence.

Obviously, not everyone is drawn to the life and lifestyle of St Anthony, but Anthony does teach everyone a basic truth of life. When we learn how it is that God wants to work in us, we have only to follow God's promptings to be at peace. Some will be drawn to God by a life of total involvement with the world. Others will find themselves and God in a life among the poor or as missionaries. A few will be drawn to the hermetical life like St Anthony. Where we arrive in life is not the issue. How we get there is.

Today, pray for the grace to be totally open to whatever God wants for you.

Have you met someone whose lifestyle at first confused you but whose peace taught you to follow God no matter the cost?

True Friendship

  "They came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. Unable to get near Jesus because of the crowd, they opened up the roof above him. After they had broken through, they let down the mat on which the paralytic was lying." Mk 2:3-4

Where would we be without friends? A paralyzed man who hears about Jesus has no way to see or visit the Lord unless friends help him. Though Jesus is  surrounded by needy people, the paralytic's friends are not deterred. They go up on the roof, dig through it and lower their friend in front of Jesus. It is really an amazing scene which the scribes cannot spoil with the mumbling about Jesus not having the power to forgive sins. So anxious not to lose their teaching role in the society, the scribes think nothing about the paralytic while the man's friends think of nothing else. Who doesn't yearn for friends like this?

The twelfth century monk and writer, Aelred of Rievaulx, says it this way:

No medicine is more valuable, none more efficacious, none better suited to the cure of all our temporal ills than a friend to whom we may turn for consolation in time of trouble, and with whom we may share our happiness in time of joy. ― Aelred of Rievaulx Spiritual Friendship

Today, be gracious and accept the help of your friends.

To which friends are you most grateful?

Hiding with Christ

 "The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean. Then, warning him sternly, Jesus dismissed him at once. Then he said to him, 'See that you tell no one anything, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed; that will be proof for them.'” Mk 1:43

Not wanting to be the focus of people's adulation, Jesus hides from the people after curing the leper because he knew that flattery rarely led to imitation and discipleship.  Jesus wanted the Jewish leaders and the people who first listened to him to fall in love with his Father and commit themselves to God's will.

This was and is a hard lesson for us. It is natural to want security and answers to life's problems and concerns. We go to doctors to avoid and address health issues and financial advisers to help us invest our money wisely and safely, but Jesus did not come to promise us protection from life's every day trials but to accompany us on every journey. He is the new Covenant, the fullness of God's love, the one who will always be with us as a guide. We should not expect him to shield us from difficulty but to be a light in the darkness.

Today, pray to be aware of God's unconditional love and presence.

Who has been with you through every dark night?

Letting Jesus heal You

  "Jesus approached, grasped the hand of Peter's mother in law, and helped her up. Then the fever left her and she waited on them." Mk 1:30

Like most Catholics born in the middle of the last century, I was schooled to believe that the best way to live a devout life was to get to mass as frequently as possible, and to confession every week. These religious practices, good in themselves, often led people of my generation to worry about trivial matters in a way that was out of proportion to the faults themselves.

Worse, we often struggled every day to be better, not so much to honor God, but to "earn" our salvation. Unfortunately, while we became good practicing Catholics, our call to discipleship often got lost in the shadows of our compulsions. When the focus of the spiritual life becomes our personal holiness, union with God often takes a back seat.

Today's gospel offers us a different perspective. God is a healer who wants to lay hands of hope upon us and draw ever closer to us on our journey. When we, like Peter's mother in law, accept the help of the divine physician everything changes. Having confronted our weaknesses, we are freed of our compulsions and return to our daily work more energized and committed to the only one who can make us whole.

Today, who yourself to God as you really are and ask for healing.

What happens when we acknowledge our weaknesses and submit to God?

Childless Women

 “I am an unhappy woman. I have had neither wine nor liquor; I was only pouring out my troubles to the LORD." 1 Sam 1:15

Hannah, unable to get pregnant, pours out her concerns to God. Assuring God in quiet prayer that she will give any child she bears to God for God's service, Eli, the priest, seeing her praying and crying, thinks she is drunk. Assuring Eli that she has had nothing to drink, she tells Eli of her unhappiness and Eli prays that God will give her what she so ardently desires.

Reading this passage, I think of dozens of women I have known who wanted to bear children, spent thousands of dollars being tested, and still were unable to conceive. Hearing their stories over the years, my heart broke for them but no assurance on my part that women did not have to bear children to be beloved of God consoled them. No doubt all who are reading this know women like Hannah.

How sensitive we need to be to those whose stories we do not know. All of bear some sorrow and the Gospel response is simple. Listen to them as God listen to us and trust that will be enough.

Today, pray for someone you know is struggling in marriage or trying to have a child.

Who taught you how to accompany those who suffer?

 

Fishers of People

   “'Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.' Then they left their nets and followed him." Mk 1:17

Reading about the call of the disciples, it is natural to wonder if Jesus knew any of the men before inviting them to follow him. Did he notice something in them that would help announce the great salvific message of his Father? Did he know their families? Did he call them because he noticed them listening intently to him when he preached.

We know none of the answers to these questions, but we do know that the apostles followed him immediately, and this knowledge is startling. What made Jesus' fist disciples leave everything so readily and quickly? They had families and reasonably good jobs, but something in Jesus made them look past what they had to the one calling them, and they could not resist. The readiness of the apostles to follow Jesus without questions is a major focus of the story for us.

The simplicity of the Gospel has not changed. Neither has its difficulty. Our task is to live its message of hope, transformation and submission to God with integrity and honesty. Admitting our dependence on God and being willing to serve others in his name remains a powerful invitation to anyone looking for a God who will never stop loving and challenging them.

Today, listen for the voice of the Lord in your life and follow it unreservedly.

Have you ever followed someone immediately without really knowing much about them?