by Sr. Olivia Woltering, ASC
Each year Winter gives way to Spring. The ice and snow melt, the ground becomes warm. While seeds are germinating, crocuses burst into bloom. And the Church asks us to burst into new life, to re-evaluate our relationship with God, with our self and with others. It might be time to consider changes.
Change is not easy, but it is a part of living. It was part of Jesus’ life as a human. To save Jesus’ life Joseph and Mary became refugees soon after his birth. As a pre-teenager Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. Did he want to remain permanently in the house of his Father instead of returning to Nazareth? During his ministry years Jesus was drawing crowds of people to hear him speak and to see him cure the sick. But he knew he had critics who questioned him and schemed against him. Then came his triumphant entry into Jerusalem. Soon after he is in the Garden begging his Father to remove this chalice. What was his prayer? Not my will but thy be done.
Saint Maria de Mattias wrote often to her companions. What we do is not our own, but the work of God. Courage. She knew from her own experience that what she asked of them was not easy. Maria herself frequently wrote to Fr. John Merlini, seeking to know God’s will for her. What was she to do, to write, to say with neither a smartphone nor chat room for immediate response.
Each time we recite the Our Father we say: Thy will be done.
Are these only words of a prayer we learned as children?
Have they become the core of our relationship with God, with our self, with others?
“This day may peace and bread be my lot;
Whatever else, thou knowest best to bestow or not.”
Author Unknown
