Tuesday, February 24, 2009

The Start of Lent

This quote was sent to the students at APTS from the Vice President for Student Affairs and Vocations. It's comforting to me on the eve of Lent (Ash Wednesday). I don't want God to move slow...I want to know the meaning of things in my life, now. It's hard to wait. It's hard to discern. It's hard to wait for things to unfold. But, I know...that this quote brings the meaning of Lent to returned focus for me....it's helps me actually remember to slow down and reflect upon God's nature and his love...and his direction. I ponder, is it because God does not move fast enough, or is because we are moving too fast and cannot hear God's voice? I wonder...Happy season of awakening the wonder, and moving slower and more quietly, all in the anticipation of coming back to the Heart, remembering the suffering servant, the sacrifice and the glory of salvation.

Here's the quote:
Patient Trust by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

"Above all, trust in the slow work of God. We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay. We should like to skip the intermediate stages. We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new. And yet it is the law of progress that it is made by passing through some stages of instability - and that it may take a very long time. And so I think it is with you. Your ideas mature gradually - let them grow, let them shape themselves, without undue haste. Don't try to force them on, as though you could be today what time (that is to say, grace and circumstances acting on your own good will) will make of you tomorrow. Only God could say what this new spirit gradually forming within you will be. Give your Lord the benefit of believing that his hand is leading you, and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete."

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