My New Year’s Eve penance was three Glory Be’s to the Infant Jesus, asking Him to make me a saint.  In the tiny chapel my prayer included kissing the cold baby statue in the manger, wondering why we have a God who seems so hidden in time.  The closed and silent tabernacle containing His Presence in the form of bread, the Spirit-Fire flame that flickers captured by the red sanctuary lamp.

Where are you God? When will we see your Almighty power in the time of my life?

A New Year focuses our attention on time. Time-past, time-in-the-future thoughts abound.  And these thoughts are planted in mid-Christmas season, when we are celebrating Emmanuel, God with us. Where do we find God in the time that makes up our days?

Jacques Philippe, in his book, Interior Freedom, defines two types of time.  There is time of the head and time of the heart.  The time of the head calculates days and hours, plans and organizes.

Heart time is an interior time of grace.  It is a communion with eternity because it is what we do in communion with God’s Will.  This time necessitates prayer and listening and a total detachment from our own plans.  Ready to do in an instant what God might ask of us, we are fully available to people and to events.  Philippe describes it as a “life unfolding in perfect rhythm with infinite wisdom.”

And so I become a God-seeker.  I look for Him in prayer, in mystery, and in sign.

Scripture reminds me, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:5)  The sanctuary flame moves telling me He is very much alive and present. Its light seems covered in red and trapped, but I do see its life, its burning which cleanses me.

And the tabernacle is opened and He is revealed as veil is parted.  He shines forth from the monstrance and becomes life-giving Body at every Mass. He is lifted high and praised and grants sinners a Holy Union.

I taste, I see, I receive, I become.  I need the eyes of faith that cast out all fear of abandonment in time.  There can be no room for exaggerated concern for past mistakes confessed.  He has cast them into the ocean of His mercy.  There can be no anxious worry for future events or circumstances.  He is not there yet.

I celebrate Emmanuel, God with us now. His Presence changes the meaning of time.  When I abandon myself to communion with God’s Will, I commune with eternity.

Where do you find God present in your life?

Copyright 2014 Cynthia Ann Costello