IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT

IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT

 

“Here I am. You called me.” – 1 Samuel 3:5

 

During a Light of Jesus retreat, the first ever my husband, Ed, and I attended, I really felt the presence of Jesus. I remember, like Samuel in today’s reading, I woke up in the middle of the night. I walked to the chapel of the retreat house, and there, weird as it may sound, I felt Jesus so close I could almost hear Him calling me to serve Him.

In succeeding retreats, through the talks, I heard again and again God’s call to serve Him. In one of those retreats, our leader, Bo Sanchez, led the evening prayer. He made us repeat after him his own prayer. I closed my eyes and followed Bo’s prayer, line after line, until I heard him say, “… give me a good night’s rest and grant me a martyr’s death.” Quickly, I opened my eyes and just glared at Bo.

I don’t know if I can ever be a martyr. But I can die little by little to my sins — that’s torture enough — and give my all to serve God. Again and again, I can only utter to the Lord the verse in today’s reading: “You called me, and here I am.” Cynthia Santiago (boses2go@yahoo.com)

 

REFLECTION:

Tell the Lord today: “You called me, and here I am.”

 

Lord, grant that I may never tire of answering Your call.

 

DEVELOPING A HUNGER FOR GOD

One of the things we often read about in the Gospels is the hunger people have for God – their desire to receive whatever it is God has to offer them. It is this desire for God that we need to develop. One of the best ways to preserve our holiness is to always cry out to God from the depth of our hearts and to always seek whatever might be His next gift to us.

If we examine the lives of the saints, we will see that at the heart of their lives is their prayer. They are always faithful to their prayers and will not allow any temptation to take them away from their personal time with God. If they do allow such, they quickly recognize the error of their ways and return to God.

If we are smart, we will look at the lives of saints and say that this is what we want for our own lives. The question that then arises is whether or not we are willing to pay the price. What price, I hear you asking — the price of making prayer the central focus of our lives; the price of putting God before all else; the price of becoming serious about the call to discipleship.

If we are willing to make these decisions then we are at least at the beginning of the journey. The challenge that we now face is maintaining the hunger for God as we grow in discipleship. This will mean not allowing ourselves to get disillusioned when the path gets rough and difficult. There will be countless times when we will be tempted to give up because the path ahead looks impossible. However, we must resolve that we will never give up — the stakes are too high. Fr. Steve Tynan, MGL

 

 

Reflection Question:

What is the biggest challenge I face in growing in my faith? How do I intend to confront it?

 

Jesus, open my heart to the truth of Your love for me so that I will never lose the inspiration and drive to be Your disciple.

 

Blessed Yvette, pray for us.