In the Tender Compassion of Our God

Dear Sisters,

I know that each of us has had this experience...you read or pray a phrase that you've read a hundred times before and suddenly the words hit you like a two by four.  For me these words came from the Canticle of Zechariah.

Luke 1:68-79

In the tender compassion of our God
the dawn from on high shall break upon us, 
to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death,
and to guide our feet into the way of peace.

I've been working on quieting my mind after a whirlwind of activity in my life.  God is with me in the chaos and busy-ness, but I have a difficult time being with Him when my mind is whirling.  My heart has been full,  but my mind has been racing for so long that I can't seem to catch a thought.

So much to do...and since I've been in this hyper-activity mode for so long, it now seems like the norm.  So I do, do, do until I lay exhausted in my bed wondering where the day went.  A quick prayer of contrition, thanks, praise and then oblivion until the next morning. Repeat.

Then something happens...I nearly pull the nail off my big toe.  Yes friends, ouch!  But guess what? God in his genius has given me the perfect opportunity to slow down.  No morning walk before it gets too hot.  No pool activity for a week.  In fact the toe throbs quite a bit if it's not elevated.  He knows me so well...I'm a doer.  But God wants me to have the better part which is Him and He wants me to stop thinking about so many other things.  He knows that I needed something to put a stop to all the activity.  He knows that before too long I would feel empty, alone, needy...because the one thing necessary was not front and center in my life.

So this morning I hobbled out to my yard with a glass of water and opened the Magnificat and started my day in prayer...which is really the BEST way to start the day.  This was a habit of mine before all the recent chaos and I've missed it so much.  The weather turning to summer heat changed up my schedule so that I tried to sneak a walk in first.  I say the rosary while I walk, but somehow that centering moment first thing in the morning where I'm still and just loving on God and He's loving on me was missing.

I felt myself start to settle into the familiar rhythm of prayer in the morning.  No news show, no list making in my head, just God.  It's like waking up after a long sleep.  He's been with me every step of the way, but now I'm with Him too.  I feel myself awaken, I feel full of love and purpose.  This purpose has nothing to do with doing and everything to do with being.

In these moments of being in the Lord, Zechariah's words hit me so very hard.  Tender Compassion. Tender like a mother with a child.  Tender like a lover with a beloved.  Tender like grandparent with a grandchild.  He loves us tenderly.  How those words impacted me today!  What love is this that loves so tenderly?  We are called to love tenderly too.

Compassion comes from the Latin compati, which means 'to suffer with'.  He loves us so tenderly that he has come to suffer with us and for us.  How dark are our times?  How much do we need the 'dawn from on high' to break upon us again and to shine on all of us that are dwelling in this present darkness and in the culture (shadow) of death.  We so need the God that loves us tenderly and suffers with us in His compassion to guide our feet into the way of peace.  We yearn for His peace in our hearts, our relationships, our families, our communities, our churches, our cities, our country, our world.

The United States will some day be a chapter in a history book, but God and His church will still be there...shining the light from on high into the darkness, tenderly walking in compassion with the suffering humanity, shining light into all the shadows of death in human hearts and guiding again our feet into the way of peace.

My prayer for each of you dear sisters is peace in your hearts.  With that peace from Christ, we can transform the world.