Holy Longing, Holy Waiting
In his book, The Holy
Longing, Ron Rohlheiser leads his reader to a deeper understanding of
spirituality in the context of the daily struggles we experience … with faith,
with the Church, with our own understanding of our place in the world, with our
deep longing for right relationship with God, and with our need to initiate, to
act.
In her
book, When the Heart Waits, Sue Monk
Kidd leads her reader on a journey to a spot where we can nestle – to an
understanding of waiting as a holy, sacred action.
Lately,
I’ve been feeling like the child of a marriage between these two books. While I’m trying to be fully present to my
life as a 1st year novice, I’m also longing to be in the
world, to act, to help in whatever meager way I can. A longing to dive in headlong, bellowing like
Tarzan! There is so much need…
And yet I
can also sense, in a very palpable way, the fruits of contemplation, of listening,
of waiting as God speaks to and works in me.
Kidd relates a time when a monk described waiting as “allowing your soul
to grow up.” Waiting is
a holy act.
It seems I
am caught in the very Dominican cycle of contemplation and action, of waiting
and longing.....and there's no place I'd rather be! Lent has always
been a time of holy longing for me. This
year, I’m making it a time of holy waiting, too… a time of presence to this very
moment, which is God.
For what do
you long, how will you wait, with whom will you wait, this Lenten season?
Sr. Kathy Flynn
St. Louis MO
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