Today's Office of Readings

O Lord, listen to my prayer
and let my cry for help reach you.
Do not hide your face from me
in the day of my distress.
Turn your ear towards me
and answer me quickly when I call.- from Ps 102

So many people I know are in great distress in this week of preparation. Family, dearest friends, prayer partners and coworkers are all dealing with grave difficulties, bearing heavy burdens. On their behalf, I offer up this psalm which, Lord Jesus, you yourself prayed as you walked with us.

Answer quickly, O Virgin. Reply in haste to the angel, or rather through the angel to the Lord. Answer with a word, receive the Word of God. Speak your own word, conceive the divine Word. Breathe a passing word, embrace the eternal Word.- from a homily In Praise of the Virgin Mother by St. Bernard, abbot.

This reading I've excerpted is worth consuming in its entirety. Though St. Bernard is writing to implore the Blessed Mother or, rather, to praise her in recognition of the challenge of her situation, these final three sentences apply equally well to us as we weigh our own "Yes" to Christ's presence in our lives. We fret over what our submission to God's will might cost us. It may be a concept we hold dear, or a freedom we embrace out of proportion to its proper place. It might be our self-determinism, being able to decide for ourselves what is right and wrong, without the influence of any authority to interpret sources we deem irrelevant to our day. Yet despite these reservations, it remains an unfathomable exchange rate. For a word which passes - at the latest, with our own passing - we receive the eternal, infinite Creator of all that is. We, too, must reply in haste!

Why do you delay, why are you afraid? Believe, give praise, and receive. Let humility be bold, let modesty be confident.- ibid.

Well, in this day and age, it generally isn't modesty that causes our hesitation. Nonetheless, let us not be afraid, but rather believe, give praise, and receive. The life in Christ is full of blessings!