This afternoon I participated in the local Communion and Liberation Advent retreat. Fr. Pietro's talk was extremely affirming to me, in the sense of how it is so helpful to see someone looking at the same reality I look at and describing it in ways that resonate instantly with my own experience. That assures me that that which I experience is real, and not just invented in my mind.
There was one image that he mentioned which I contemplated when I was pregnant with my daughter, and that was of Mary just after St. Gabriel left her after the Annunciation. There she was, alone in her house. She had given her yes to God through the angel. Eventually, she would be able to physically know the baby Jesus with her, but just then? The most glorious moment of salvation history to date had just transpired, and now she was back to weaving or washing the dishes or whatever it was. The glory of God is completely comfortable taking up residence within our lives next to what to us feels mundane. When the proverbial dust settles and God is done wowing us with something amazing and we are again alone, there is Christ. Silent, still, small. But present. It is not the trumpet blast nor the noisy crowd nor any thing of beauty which makes Christ present; these are only ways we respond to the One who comes among us. And sometimes, as He is just here, quietly, He bids us sit with Him, quietly, alone. Open, in awe, awaiting.
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