A blink of the eye, and nine days have passed without notice. Such is the reality of life today. Yet, is that truly reality, or an illusion of busyness which leads me to miss my daily time of reflection and prayer.
What does it mean to think and live differently in our world today? How do we orient our time in a different way? Is it possible to reorient ourselves so that we become observers of modern culture rather than enmeshed participants in it?
Of course, the simple answer is that God’s grace brings about the metanoia which makes us new. Yet, that seems far too simplistic at times. I think Joan Chittister says it best in her commentary on the Rule of Benedict.
Grace and goodness come from God, the rule insists. We are not the sole authors of our own story. What does come from us, though, are the decisions we make in the face of the graces we receive. We can either respond to each life grace and become what we might in every situation, whatever the effort, or we can reject the impulses that the magnet in us called goodness brings in favor of being less that we ought to be. It is those decisions that we must bend our lives to be better.
The balance between God’s grace as the ultimate mover, and our response to that grace is difficult. Finding that balance is part of the task of prayer and meditation, thinking about what God has done in the past so that we can recgonize the graces He places in our life each day.
Only Wonder Understands 