January 1, 2017. The Feast of Mary, Mother of God
Today marks the beginning of a new calendar year,
and this is a time where most of us think about the year gone by, and look forward to the year ahead.
Maybe even make some plans. Some “2017 Resolutions”
You probably had a few items on your 2016 New Year’s Resolution list. And perhaps you are able to look back on last years list and see that you were actually able to do everything on that list. If so, I commend you !
And I am jealous !!
If you are like me, you probably started 2016 with a well crafted list, and the intention of making everything on that list happen.
But then December 31 came, and you ran out of time. And so, we just add it to our 2017 list ….. right?
I have had a lot of practise over the years with these lists, never seeming able to complete the items I had listed.
And then it hit me – the reason I couldn’t do all the items on the list, was because I had the wrong list.
You see, I had listed all of the outcomes I wanted.
But not how to make them happen.
Luckily, today came along, the Feast of Mary, Mother of God, and I realized what I had been doing wrong all those years.
The secret is there in today’s Gospel, where it said …. Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.
Pondering.
Bingo.
Our lives have become too full. Too full of things. Too full of events. Too full of tasks.
Just like my old new year’s resolution lists.
We are living in an age that demands multi-tasking
as a prerequisite to everything. Certainly our jobs seem to demand it. But so does our play ….
how many times are you on the hands-free in your car coordinating who will pick up what child from what activity, while sneaking out to get groceries, and maybe, just maybe, grab a Timmy’s or a Starbucks along the route.
Every moment of our day is filled with Twitter, Facebook, cell phone calls, text messages, Internet, talking, reading, planning, coordinating, music – noise!
And to be honest, I don’t think we would know what to do with ourselves when all of that is taken away, and we are left with silence.
We have forgotten what it is like to be alone with ourselves.
Often when talking to youth about this wired, social-media connected world, I hear them say things like
“I am afraid to be alone with my own thoughts – it scares me.”
For us older ones, it seems we have forgotten how to treasure the moments in our lives. We have forgotten how to ponder in silence. And for our younger ones, perhaps they have never learned. Or we have never taught them
In this “Think Fast” world, we don’t know how to “Think Slow.”
To reflect, meditate, muse, contemplate, consider and cogitate. In short, to ponder.
And therein lies a tragedy.
In rushing through life, we miss the things that can only be seen, heard, felt, experienced
when we slow down.
Centuries ago, our First Nations Peoples understood this. When making decisions that would affect the community, they would look back 7 generations to seek the wisdom of the elders. They would then look forward 7 generations to see the effect of their decision on their children’s children’s children yet to be born. Then, and only then, would they make a decision.
This did not lead them to “Think Fast” – as our current world would demand of us. Rather, it led them to ponder, and to think wisely.
To make better decisions.
Let me share a personal story if I may.
About 15 years ago I left the fast paced business world, and as a way of transitioning to what was to be a new reality, I planned a week away at a personal retreat at the Augustinian Monastery at Marylake, north of Toronto – a transition to a slower pace in my life. My plan was to go jogging in the mornings around their beautiful and peaceful property, to commune with nature, to pray, to read, and experience the monastic cycle of time. On the first morning, I awoke to find that I could barely walk – something had gone wrong with both of my Achilles’ tendons. With difficulty I walked slower that the old monks who were pushing even older monks in wheelchairs. This lasted for two days before I asked God – “what was happening?” And then it hit me.
I had prayed to God to help me learn how to slow down!
I started laughing in my room – there wasn’t anything wrong with me – it was just God answering my prayer. I pondered how in shuffling about, I took time to notice things, pictures, people, conversations. It transformed me. The next day – the pain disappeared, but the lesson I learned remained.
If we take time to slow down, to ponder, just as Mary did, we will discover that spending time in contemplation and reflection actually helps us come to answer questions we have, and solve problems we encounter. It leaves room for the Holy Spirit to do its work.
Taking time to reflect on the events and encounters of our day, we learn where our priorities are, where our loves lay.
Taking time to treasure the events and encounters in our day, and to ponder them in our hearts, will transform us.
Two weeks ago we reflected on Joseph, and I asked if you had discovered God’s great dream for you.
Taking time to treasure the events and encounters in our day, and to ponder them in our hearts,
will lead us to discover that dream.
Each of us struggles with knowing if we are doing the right things in raising our children.
Taking time to treasure the events and encounters in our day, and to ponder them in our hearts,
will lead us to the answers we seek.
Each one of us desires a greater sense of peace in our lives. Taking time to treasure the events and encounters in our day, and to ponder them in our hearts, will lead us to find that Peace.
So, thank you Mary, Mother of Jesus the Messiah, Mother of God. Your example inspires us, and enables us, to live God’s great dream for us.
This New Year, I have but one resolution…. To take time to treasure the events and encounters in my day, and to ponder them in my heart.
Perhaps, you can make that your resolution, too.