Dear Friends,
This very Saturday we acknowledge The Transfiguration of the Lord! During our Advent Season we often hear words calling us to be
awake and prepared for the coming of the Lord.
“Be attentive!” are words our Byzantine Catholic sisters and brothers hear during the Liturgy of the Word before the proclamation of each reading. Authors Lauren Murphy and Paul Radkowski remind us that “This Feast of the Transfiguration demands that we be attentive to the living Word of God: Jesus Christ, the beloved Son of the Father. Christ’s radiant glory, witnessed by the apostles and proclaimed through the centuries, is meant to be a light shining not only on us, but also in and through us. We would indeed do well to be attentive to it, so that God will be well pleased with us.” As God the Father told Peter, James and John to “listen to him” so too are we asked to listen to him.
Our summer days are moving quickly before us. With all the wonders and joys that summer can bring before our very lives, have we experienced moments where in our listening we have heard Jesus speak to us? Listening comes in so many ways. What do we hear when praying with the Lord? What do we hear in gathering for communal prayer? Has someone spoken words to you that have blessed your heart and soul? What did these words mean to your person? What have you heard in the moments you have allowed yourself to be out in God’s creation listening to summer breezes, water lapping on the shoreline, birds chirping in the trees and in the blue skies? What have you heard in the stillness of being quiet and reflective in the present moment?
Like the disciples, we have the opportunities to see divine glory before us. Let us appreciate the present moment of our lives and pray, look before us and listen to the One who desires to speak to us. Indeed, may we joyfully acclaim “Lord, how good it is for us to be here!”
To blessings on your life and spirit,
Father Rob