“ You love thru’ us, O Lord.

You love thru’ us, O Lord.

We are your heart and hands and voice.

You love thru’ us, O Lord.”

You and I are gifted with God’s unconditional love.  Stephen Doughty calls us to ‘see’ with God’s unconditional love with what he calls the ‘gift of glimpses’, seeing the other person with God’s eyes.  This often happens even in the midst of the fractures and struggles within our intimate relationships with family or community. And it occurs, almost daily, in our local piece of this earth and the larger world which has become our global neighborhood.

During this lovely time of Advent we are so prone to get caught up with planning, budgeting, buying, creating, mailing, preparing and gathering.  There is precious little time to spend with our family, friends and those who are much less fortunate than we are.  Just as important, there is precious little time for creating space to be alone with ourselves and our God: being attentive, watching and waiting.  I wonder what would happen if we paused, stopped doing and just ‘stood or sat or walked quietly alone.’

In the cold and snow of these last few days, I have relished walking in the stillness of the night, being one with the falling snow and marveling at the beauty of creation. God seemed to be calling me to “be still and know I am God.” During this second week of Advent let’s dare to share a little of our heart, the work of our hands and the affirmations with our voice with those we love and those we struggle to love.  We may be surprised with the discovery of the ’glimpses of our God’.

Anne Stedman, OSB