Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Humble Presence and Graced-Delight




One of the women that lives in my monastery is known for her “awe-capacity”.  She rarely uses the word “Wow!” but you can easily hear it in her voice when she is describing something she has seen or heard that delighted her. She clearly has never lost her early childhood “capacity-to-be-de-lighted”. It’s such a hallmark of her ability to completely enter into the presence-around-her. She seems to allow those “light-scenes” and “light-stories” to ignite embers of grace in her and slowly transform her world view.  That’s why she can so humbly and spontaneously describe them to others on just the right occasions. I immediately thought of her when I read this January 12, 2017, Daily Meditation  by Richard Rohr entitled “Humility and Presence” in which he quoted Teilhard de Chardin:
“Space, time, and patience reveal the patterns of grace. This is why it takes most of us a long time to be converted. Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) prayed, “Above all, trust in the slow work of God.” [1] Our focus eventually moves from preoccupation with perfect actions of any type, to naked presence itself. The historical word for presence is simply “prayer.” Jesus often called it “vigilance,” “seeing,” or  “being awake.” When you are fully present, you will know what you need to know in that moment.”

I pray that I may continue to learn from my monastic companion’s declarations of genuine delight and remember to give myself the space, time and patience it takes to be humbly present to the graced-delights around me each day.




Mary Rachel Kuebelbeck, OSB

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