Words of Light and Hope from Tony Hawes

Come now, put aside your busyness for a while,

take refuge for a time from your troublesome thoughts;

throw away your cares, and let your burdensome worries wait…

Take some time off for God; rest for a while in Him.

Enter the secret room of your mind, put out everything except God, and whatever helps you find Him.

Close the door of your mind, and seek God……

Say now to God, with all your heart, “I seek your face, Lord: your face I seek.”…

St. Anselm.

In response to what is happening in nature, we loosen our grip on what we have been and open ourselves, in silence, to what God is inviting us to become: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation, the old has passed away, behold the new has come!” II Corinthians 5.17.

Lent is not so much about making resolutions to give up this or stop doing that. Lent is about giving our full attentiveness to God. If we place all our effort on self- improvement, however well intentioned, we run the risk of leaving no space or effort to be present and available to God. “It is in Him that we live and move and have our being.” Acts 17.28.

In silence we surrender our heart and mind to God, allowing God to do the transforming, just allowing ourselves to be drawn close to the mystery. Just letting go and letting God…… Come my Beloved. Come into my darkness and emptiness. Fill my darkness with your invisible light and my emptiness with your undetectable presence…

Rosemary Patyus OCDS