Reflective Moments Moments Reflective May 2009
The purpose of Reflective Moments is to offer you a way to incorporate the spirit of Saint Angela Merici into your own lives. We hope that it enriches you spiritually.
Encountering God in Scripture By Sister Marietta Wethington, OSU
A
few years ago there was a priest in residence in our parish who sometimes preached on Sunday. On more than one occasion I told him it was dangerous to come to Mass when he preached because I had to go home and change my life. While I was really teasing, there was a lot of truth in my words. The priest’s homilies broke open the Word of God in a way that challenged me, and I couldn’t ignore the message. God’s Word is a living Word with power to change us if we allow it into our hearts. The preacher I listened to on those Sunday mornings seemed to be on fire with the Good News and was eager to share it. His preaching was done with such passion that people could easily grasp the message of the Gospel – God loves you uniquely, unconditionally. The homilist challenged us to go deeper into our own hearts and find God dwelling there and recognize God at work in and through us in our daily lives. It was obvious that he knew the God of whom he spoke. And it was not knowledge that came from his head through books. It was knowledge from the heart acquired through contemplative prayer. We know that Angela must have been particularly nourished by the Scriptures. In her writings, she often quotes scripture to help us more fully understand what she is saying. She encouraged praying the psalms daily and she must have used scriptures for her times of reflection and meditation. Often members of the clergy, even theologians, came to her and asked for help in interpreting scripture. So we know she had a knowledge of the Bible that came to her heart through the inspirations of the Holy Spirit. The Church has always recognized the real presence of God in the Word as it has recognized it in the Eucharist. When we open our lives to the power of the Word it draws us to the truth of God’s love and to our own lovableness. The Word of God proclaimed in Scripture can bring us face to face with the power of God’s transforming grace and love and can change our lives. That is what I experienced on those Sunday mornings with that dangerous preacher.