Wisdom, Discernment and Providence

 How do we trust everything to God? This is not just an abandonment of responsibility for our actions but rather a considered approach to the way we live our lives. We are called to be people who are prayerfully attentive to the situation in which we live. This is noticing how we are present in the world in which we live while also considering how we listen to the voice of God. This incarnate way of living centres the way we see things to be in harmony with God's creative nature which is ever ancient and ever new. We are people who not only hear the Word of God but seek to allow that Word to be written upon our hearts. This allows us to become people who seek to live that Word in whatever environment we are called to live.

Our discernment seeks for us to think, feel and sense ourselves into what brings all things before God daily. The first step in our prayer is that we think about many things and we need to sift them to distinguish the dross from the pearl. This process allows us to not only think about the pearl but to allow all our senses to become curious about what we are called to hold on to. This application of the sense helps us to appreciate how the Word engages us practically and not just theoretically. It allows the Word to sink deeper into us. Allowing us to notice how it becomes one with us there can be a sense of nourishment that is not just based on our hunger but by a deeper encounter with what truly fills us. This allows us to notice how through this simple pattern of prayer we can start to look at our lives differently and attend to things more readily.

By allowing this to become a daily practice we trust to rely on what comes to hand rather than fretting about the future or being anchored in the past. There is a growing confidence that God can help us to be present in this moment and this place. Even when we have difficult choices to make or the circumstances constrict us with possibilities there can be a clearer understanding of the next obvious step. This is not blind faith but a disposition that we can be guided to trust that God will show us the way. 

What makes us teachable

 We live in an age where we know much about life but struggle to live an integration of that life. Every day we can be bombarded with self-help programs to discover who we are called to become by doing things differently. There can often be a discomfort inside ourselves that this becomes overly complex and we look for a way that is simple and achievable in our own lives. Nowhere is this felt more often than in relationships, particularly where the focus is on marriage. The pressure that people can feel is that they need to be perfect rather than transformed. This can often be the tension that can develop where we expect someone to be different from who they are. When we look back on the Saints who have guided us through the week I believe they can give us some hints about how to develop a relationship founded on Christ.

St Jerome reminds us that ignorance of scripture is ignorance of Christ. I believe this is not just about reading scripture but allowing us to be absorbed by scripture into the heart of Christ. This is the starting point for all prayer as it seeks to discover how God faithfully communicates with us through the written word. This written word is not just to be written on the page but is to be written on our hearts.

St Therese of Lisieux in reading through the first letter of St Paul to the Corinthians in Chapters 12 and 13 discovered that her vocation was to love rather than undertaking a particular role or function. This is not a self-serving love that sought to obtain special preference for herself but a self-giving love that sought unconditional love for the good of the other. This allows us a vision that sees ourselves encountering the love of God through our everyday encounters with each other.

The Guardian Angels remind us that in each sacrament of life both in Marriage and Priesthood there is a guardian angel and an empowering angel. This guides us to safeguard what brings life to the other while also encouraging us to witness God's love in daily life. They help us to not just focus on our own needs but on how we encounter others and become detectives of grace.

The last word probably belongs to St Francis of Assisi which is best proclaimed in his prayer.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:

where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

where there is sadness,  joy.

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek

to be consoled as to console,

to be understood as to understand,

to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive,

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Especially in our current age and as we prepare for the Feast of the Holy Rosary on Monday we are called to be people who pray and fast for each other and for our world. To seek the peace of God that is at the heart of all creation.