A Season and a Time

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven," begins our first reading at Mass today (Eccl 3:1-11). I never tire of hearing this. Every season and time is valid and meaningful for me because every moment is God's gift to me. Indeed, as Fr. Jean-Pierre de Caussade writes in his timeless classic Abandonment to Divine Providence, "every moment reveals God to us," and that is enough for me. "There is never a moment when God does not come forward in the guise of some suffering or some duty," de Caussade goes on to say, "and all that takes place within us, around us and through us both includes and hides his activity." The time to be born reveals the Lord in His nativity; the time to die, His passion and death. The time to mourn draws us to Golgotha; the time to laugh, the empty tomb. The time to be silent leads us on the way of the Cross; the time to speak, on the road to Emmaus. "What God arranges for us to experience at each moment is the best and holiest thing that could happen to us," de Caussade explains, adding that "At every moment we should exclaim: 'It is the Lord!'" (Jn 21:7)

Dear Lord, thank you for putting the timeless into my heart so that I may long for You alone, the Eternal God. Whatever the seasons and times of this day, let me rejoice and be glad for You will be there, making everything beautiful as only You can. Amen.

Alive in the Present Moment

Every morning, when we wake up, we have twenty-four brand-new hours to live. What a precious gift! We have the capacity to live in a way that these twenty-four hours will bring peace, joy, and happiness to ourselves and others.

Peace is present right here and now, in ourselves and in everything we do and see. The question is whether or not we are in touch with it. We don't have to travel far away to enjoy the blue sky. We don't have to leave our city or even our neighborhood to enjoy the eyes of a beautiful child. Even the air we breathe can be a source of joy.

We can smile, breathe, walk, and eat our meals in a way that allows us to be in touch with the abundance of happiness that is available. We are very good at preparing to live, but not very good at living. We know how to sacrifice ten years for a diploma, and we are willing to work very hard to get a job, a car, a house, and so on. But we have difficulty remembering that we are alive in the present moment, the only moment there is for us to be alive. Every breath we take, every step we make, can be filled with peace, joy, and serenity. We need only to be awake, alive in the present moment.

Thich Nhat Hanh

Thank you, loving Father, for the gift of this new day, for the twenty-four
brand-new hours You are giving me to be happy in Your love and to bring Your
happiness and love to others. Let me live each moment as if it were the only
moment, which it is -- shining with Your goodness and full of endless
possibilities. Wake me up, dear Father, that I may be truly alive in the present
moment, rejoicing always to be Your precious child. Amen.

St. Faustina and the Present Moment

O Jesus, I want to live in the present moment, to live as if this were the last day of my life. I want to use every moment scrupulously for the greater glory of God, to use every circumstance for the benefit of my soul. I want to look upon everything from the point of view that nothing happens without the will of God. God of unfathomable mercy, embrace the whole world and pour Yourself out upon us through the merciful Heart of Jesus.

St. Faustina in Divine Mercy in My Soul, #1183