Gateways Of Grace
Lynne Elwinger O.C.D.
Frantic activity increasingly characterizes our time, our culture and our lives. This frenzied fragmentation of our days is almost more than a soul can bear, but there doesn’t appear to be any easy way to change it. I sometimes wonder if, from God’s larger view, we don’t appear somewhat like a huge day care center where young children are at play. We rush here and there, each of us intent on our own agenda, not taking much time to relate to one another except to squabble over the toys. And then, if we’re lucky, we take a nap.
Yet amidst all this frustrating frenzy, more and more people are becoming aware of an inner hunger that is not being satisfied in the daily round of their lives. Knowingly or unknowingly, they are seeking the sacred. There is a deeper dimension to all life, one for which and out of which we have been created. When we lose touch with this dimension, we feel an indefinable loneliness and a longing for the lost connection. We are hungering for our true roots – for that relationship with our loving God who created us for this friendship. We are sought and desired by God more than we dare imagine. In fact, often we really can’t imagine it at all. But God has put gateways of grace everywhere, hoping to attract our attention and courteously waiting for our willingness to interact.
Most Gateways Are Inconspicuous
The first Pentecost event (which we will soon be celebra-ting in our church year) was a large-scale, highly visible and public example of what happens in the divine-human encounter. Most gateways of grace, however, are much more
inconspicuous, camouflaged as they are in the colors of everyday life. If we are looking for the spectacular, we tend to miss them. To find them, all we have to do is slow down a little, take a deep breath or two, and give God a minute. Any pause can be a portal of Presence, of possibility for connection. Even the simplest glance is enough to cause the One who waits at the gate to come racing toward us.
No merit or special holiness is required on our part. There are no particular prayers that have to be said. All we have to do is to show up and remain fully present to whatever might come. Many people cannot spend long periods of time in prayer or meditation, but all of us can spare a few minutes here or there throughout the day to allow our hearts to gravitate to God to be nourished and restored to life.
Gateways of grace are also found when we can be fully present moment by moment to the task or activity in which we are engaged. There is a power in this kind of presence and a different type of awareness operates. Unfortunately, we are more likely to be reacting from or ruminating on the past or worrying about and planning for the future than to be focused fully on the present moment. We may have two or three themes running around in our heads at the same time. When I began to look at this process, I was amazed to realize how “not-here” I often was, and how little idea I had of the quality of life I was missing in living this way. My first reflections were more about absence (mine) than presence. Think about it. When was the last time you remember being totally present in an activity or situation. What did it feel like?
God’s Spirit Has Always Been There
Whether we have been absent or present, God’s Spirit has always been there, patiently waiting to be recognized. Through being fully present in activity or through consciously taking short pauses, something inside us shifts. We can come out with a new insight that we didn’t have moments before, or find ourselves with a new sense of calm, compassion, or peace. When we realize our ability to intentionally make these intervals of availability happen each day and if we actually practice that (and it does take practice), we will be surprised to find that over time our lives will change. Gateways of grace are places where time and eternity meet, where the sacred and the secular are united. Though these experiences may be a new development for us, the gateways have always been there. It is we who have failed to notice.
Little Pauses For Communion
In our era of slogans, we often hear “Race for this….,” or “Run for that….”. I’d like to suggest a new one – “Pause for Life”. For it is in these little pauses for communion that our souls are fed with the manna of loving relationship with the One in whose heart we live. We come home. Somehow the light changes and reveals a different landscape in which the familiar seems less familiar and the unfamiliar is suddenly understandable. And we are changed. Prepare to see your particular view of things dissolved and reassembled, and your preconceived notions go out the window. Pauses are like little cocoons, transforming our caterpillar lives and birthing butterflies. The Divine embrace is always awaiting us. All we have to do is to allow it to happen – and perhaps, to return the embrace. Getting close to Divine Love is always an awesome experience! The gateways surround us. Notice them. Pause for life.
Sr. Lynne Thérèse Elwinger of the Resurrection O.C.D.