“The Christian of the future will be a mystic or he will not exist at all.” Karl Rahner
“I don’t believe in miracles, I rely on them.” Karl Rahner
“To be a saint is never to take anything as owed, but to receive everything gratefully, as gift.” Ron Rolheiser
If I am constantly waiting on some miracle to come along and make everything better; make everything work out like I want it to, I will miss the miracles all around me.
This morning I wrote the following prayer in my journal;
God, I find you in every steaming cup of coffee
In every page of this journal. I find you in the
Morning light and in the nighttime stars.
I find you on my front lawn and at my back door.
I find you in the quietness of the morning and in
All the noisy activity of the afternoon. I find you in
The pages of every book that I read and in the eyes
Of every person that I meet. Oh, that the one constant
of my life may be an awareness of providence and the
miracle of every moment, every day. All is gift and
My only proper response is gratitude. Life is not for
The taking; this gift, called life is to be received.
Thank you Lord for the gift of life;
my life,
for there is no other.
George Santayana defined divine providence as a “conspiracy of accidents.” I like that. Jesus spoke of our need to see the “signs of the times.” I use to think this had to do with the “end times” but now see these signs are the very accidents and coincidences God uses to speak to me in this time; this moment.
I always have a choice; I can see all of life as a gift in which God is present; where I am called to receive this gift and acknowledge HIs presence or I can see this life as something to endure and fight my way through, taking what I can and pridefully exalting or frustratingly complaining, depending on the circumstances. The choice I make will determine the quality of my life. For one is an eternal life where I come to know Christ and the Father, the other is a living hell.
To be a mystic is to stand before life and view everything as gift; to see God in everything. No, I am not talking about pantheism here. I am talking about the fact that God is the creator of all things and his touch is upon the vastness of the universe as well as the tiny the tiny dew drop on the blade of grass. His touch is on the infant’s first cry and elderly person’s last breath and upon every breath in between. To be a mystic is to see all of life as gift; the good and the bad. And to respond gratefully as if each were the very voice of God.