Our
switching had some circumstances associated with it.
We had never before given
any real consideration to changing from Sunday mornings and must admit that changing
to the Vigil Mass on Saturday evenings has been good for us.
It has been good
for us in a number of ways and I feel sure that we are only just beginning to
realize the blessings. I am reminded [once again] of how God sometimes leads us
by circumstances.
The end, or destination, may not be in sight but we can rest
assured that God is working on our behalf.
Others may not understand it. Others
may not see it. Others may not appreciate it.
Others, too often, have their own
personal and well-intentioned ego-based agendas that can easily cloud and hinder
the larger vision of God’s will as it concerns other individuals. It is
entirely too easy to insist our will upon another assuming that our will is in
concert with God’s will. Regardless of the intentions of others, God’s
intentions are always best.
“We know that all things work together for good
for those that love God, who are called according to his purpose.”[1]
We have now come through another moon cycle.
It was full a few nights ago and
is now waning. I captured a few images of it with my phone. Looking at the
images, and thinking back to the sights that embedded themselves in my mind, I
cannot help but to be reminded of something that Jesus said in John’s Gospel.
“And
this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved
darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil
hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be
exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be
clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”[2]
We can easily work ourselves into a pathetic frenzy cursing the darkness
and throwing proverbial stones at every proverbial dog that barks.
The pathway
to that pathetic frenzy, so I have hard-learned through personal experience, is
always a knee-jerk reaction that accomplishes little good. It is always more
fruitful, whether we instantly see the fruit of it or not, to simple follow
Christ’s example of being light in the darkness that surrounds us.
Jesus said, “You
are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden. No one
after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand,
and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine
before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your
Father in heaven.”[3]
All of us Christians are called to be bearers of light.
Those of us outside monastic enclosures who have offered ourselves to Christ through the Blessed Mother, Saint Benedict, and his Rule are considered by our Order to be monasticism's gift to the world. We are called to shine ... to reflect and shine the light of Christ that fills us ... and, too, to point others toward the spiritual resource that we have discovered in Saint Benedict and his Rule.
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