Daily Gospel Reflection for April 28, 2025

Join us as we reflect, ponder, and pray together inspired by today's Gospel.

Today's Gospel: John 3:1-8

For many years as a gardener, I had designed landscapes for retreat centers and churches. These were gardens of visible prayer, or some would call them spiritual or meditative gardens.

The gardens were themed in many ways—Scripture, saint, devotionals—and used appropriate plant symbolisms, colors, and accents. With one exception: All prayer gardens had ornamental grasses, regardless.

The reason for having included ornamental grasses in the landscape design had to do with the last verse in today’s Gospel, which reads:

“The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” John 3:8

With grasses, especially so when their flowering fronds are present, we can see the movement of the wind. We can tell the direction. But like this verse, we can neither see the wind nor from where it came.

So, too, is our life with God in it. We cannot see the hand of God in our life, yet we are aware of His movement in it. The more aware we become, the easier it is for the Holy Spirit to move in and guide us to an eternity in heaven.

Ponder:

Where this day, or past week, have you experienced the movement of the Holy Spirit? Can you name the movement and what direction it took you?

Pray:

Lord Jesus, help me to feel the gentle breath of God in my day, help me to listen to the whisperings of the Holy Spirit, and let me own Your sway.

Copyright 2025 Margaret Rose Realy, Obl. OSB