stop, look, and listen

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, during this Advent season give us eyes to see you and ears to hear you and hearts to respond to all that you are doing within and around us. Come, Lord Jesus!  Amen.

Scripture: Luke 10:21-24

Journal: What have you seen lately?  What have you heard?  Where have you noticed the activity of God within or around you?  Do you realize that you are blessed to be able to witness that?

Reflection: I don’t know if we realize how fortunate we are.  We have been given the Spirit of the Living God to dwell in our very hearts; to make his home within us.  And that same Spirit of God gives us eyes to see him and ears to hear him in ways that the kings and prophets of days gone by longed for.  The problem is that most of the time we do not realize it.  The activity of God goes on right under our noses and we miss it because we simply aren’t paying attention.  The worries of this life, or the cares of this world, or the state of our circumstances, distract us and preoccupy us, and we fail to notice what God is doing right in our midst.  Maybe it is time, during this Advent season, to stop, look, and listen.  Maybe it’s time to slow down and to make space and to turn the eyes and ears of our hearts to the One who dwells within us.  Maybe then we will actually begin to see and hear the very things that Jesus was talking about.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Lord, you know me better than I know myself.  Your Spirit pervades every moment of my life.  Thank you for the grace and love you shower on me.  Thank you for your constant, gentle invitation to let you into my life.  Forgive me for the times I have refused that invitation, and closed myself off from you.  Help me in the day to come, to recognize your presence in my life, to open myself to you, to let you work in me, to your greater glory. Amen. (The Spiritual Exercises by St. Ignatius)