I spoke with two people today about retreats. The first person told me she got Covid last year at this time. Her pastor had to quarantine at the same time and messaged her that they’d been given an unexpected opportunity to make an Advent retreat. That resonated with me after making a mini-retreat earlier this week during my brief quarantine. The second person asked about my personal, upcoming retreat about which I am excited. It will be during Christmas week (Christmas night to Dec. 29) that I’ll go to a retreat center to enter into silence. It is in silence that God speaks to us the loudest.
It’s imperative for each of us to have some time of silent prayer each day. In a sense, then, each day can be like a mini-retreat. The frustrating thing for many people is not being able to get quiet enough to hear the Lord. They pray from their hearts and try to listen, but nothing comes back. It often takes a serious separation from the world -like being a monk or cloistered nun for a time (!) - to enter into the silence necessary to hear God. Most people can’t practically do that. Eucharistic Adoration offers the best chance for lay persons to do that. That’s one of the reasons I offer it so much here.
For many, then, the best daily opportunity to hear or see God is through signs. We all want a sign from Him on a regular basis, and He is constantly communicating with us in signs. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to read something as simple as a road sign and think, God is saying that to me! I’m actually preaching on this this weekend because God gave Joseph a sign through the angel that essentially read, “Stay in your lane”. Joseph took this clearly as God’s message. Instead of carrying out his intention to leave Mary and Jesus, he immediately decided to stay in the lane with them. This life-defining decision led him to become St. Joseph. Smart move, Joe, and great job in hearing God. Please help us to do the same.
