The Company of St. Ursula In the United States

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Tending the vine – Finding God

Do we have to “get away from it all” to find God? Where is God, anyway?

So much busyness! So many competing voices! So much distraction! So many false values! The cycle of work and relationships and responsibilities eats up all our days—and often our nights.

There’s no time to get away to find God!

But what if God were right here, in the middle of it all?
What if Jesus really meant what he said:
“The kingdom of God is among you”?

A WISDOM-TEACHER

ANGELA MERICI recognized God’s presence in everything around her. She taught her followers to listen for God’s voice in the civic arena, in family members, in the Church, in other people.

Most deeply, Angela found God at her own core.

God at the core of everything! Angela taught others to find God, not only in special places, but in the world of daily activity. As she said to her daughters, “Be bound to one another by the bond of charity, esteeming each other, helping each other, bearing with each other in Jesus Christ. For if you strive to be like this, without any doubt, . . . God will be in your midst” (Last Counsel, 2-3).

REFLECTING and DOING

1) Spend some time playing with a small child. There is no past. There is no future. Savor this moment. God is here.

2) At work, who brings out goodness in you and in other people? Who makes you find your own goodness? Maybe it’s just by a smile or kindly interest. God is touching you in this simple way.

3) Where can you offer that simple goodness to another? God wishes to be present through you.

4) If there is a problem to be solved, ask yourself whether there is a solution that has not yet been tried. Let God’s creativity work in you.

5) Are you suffering? Jesus is the compassion of God. He understands you. With him, you are called to have compassion for others who suffer.

6) T.S. Eliot wrote, “He is the stillpoint of the turning world.” Know that God is at the center of everything you touch or do or see. Look for God there.

7) When a relative or friend or co-worker says something for the nth time, ask yourself, “What is s/he saying behind those words?” You are listening with God’s ears.

8) Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J., wrote, “God. . . is not withdrawn from us beyond the tangible sphere. He is waiting for us at every moment in our action, in our work of the moment. He is in some way at the tip of my pen, my spade, my brush, my needle—of my heart and of my thought.” What good comes into the world as a result of your daily work? You are collaborating with God. Find a visual reminder that you are God’s co-worker in the world. Place it where you will see it regularly.

SCRIPTURE PATHS

Listen for the tiny whispers that say, “God is here.”
Then the LORD said [to Elijah], “Go outside and stand on the mountain before the LORD; the LORD will be passing by.” A strong and heavy wind was rending the mountains and crushing rocks before the LORD—but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake—but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake there was fire—but the LORD was not in the fire. After the fire there was a tiny whispering sound. When he heard this, Elijah hid his face in his cloak and went and stood at the entrance of the cave (1 Kings 19:11-13).

Consider that the kingdom of God is among you and _____?
“For behold, the kingdom of God is among you” (Luke 17:21).

Recognize that we can be the yeast of God’s presence in our world, if we let God knead us. We can lift the world.
He spoke to them another parable. “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch was leavened” (Matthew 13:33).

Christ fills all things. Look for Christ in all things.
May the eyes of (your) hearts be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call, what are the riches of glory in his inheritance among the holy ones, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power for us who believe, in accord with the exercise of his great might, which he worked in Christ, raising him from the dead and seating him at his right hand in the heavens, far above every principality, authority, power, and dominion, and every name that is named not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things beneath his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way (Ephesians 1:18-23).

PRAYER

Use some regular interval, like going up or down the stairs, as a time to ask God,
“Let me find you in the next hour, whether consciously or not.”

Pray with Angela Merici:
“Keep my affections and my senses safe so that they may not lead me astray, neither to the right nor to the left, nor turn me away from your brilliant face which soothes every afflicted heart” (Angela Merici, Rule, Chapter V “About Prayer,” 18-19).

Look at nature with the eyes of Joseph M. Plunkett
“I see His blood upon the rose,
And in the stars the glory of his eyes.
His body gleams amid eternal snows,
His tears fall from the skies.

“I see His face in every flower,
The thunder and the singing of the birds
Are but His voice—and carven by His power
Rocks are his written words.

“All pathways by His feet are worn,
          His strong heart stirs the ever-beating seas,
His crown of thorns is twined with every thorn,
          His cross is every tree.”
                      - Joseph Mary Plunkett