I wake up every morning, always grateful for yet another day in my life. I have seen so much beauty in life, have received so many blessings and have had experiences so fantastic I did not even dare dream them in my wildest imaginings. Nature and her awesome grandeur always thrill me with endless colors and sights. People have show me love and care beyond what I deserve. It wonderful to be alive and I always start my day with a prayerful ‘Thank You’. It is God the Father, speaking to me in my life at the break of each new day. He is the source of all life, beauty and goodness in my world.
Yet, life is not easy. It is full of challenges. It is filled with difficulties, pains and sorrows. There have been moments I had wanted to give and even more moments when I have asked ‘Why?’ in my despair and desolation. I have seen a lot of misery and injustice, inflicted on me and on others by other people, sometimes by those I love and respect. There is hunger and violence and I often wonder what it is in men that would have them do these things to one another. There is Someone who had gone through these same things and even worse. He has transformed these sorrows and pain into grace and growth. It is Christ, the Son, speaking to me in the events in my life. He has taken on the weaknesses and ills that I experience as a human being and have shown me how these can lead me to share in his divinity.
I experience moments in my life when I can feel a certain Presence – divine and loving. I know I am weak, I am often wrong and I have done many things I should not have done. I know my life should have been a mess. And yet, there is always a hand that lovingly guides me to where I should go and to what I should do. When I stray, the hand gently leads me back to the right paths. The sorrows and shadows of the valleys and the depths in my life make sense and even look necessary when I get to the glory of the mountain top and peak moments in my life. This is the Spirit speaking to me in the ups and downs of my life. He is the abiding Presence in my life, assuring me of meaning and grace and blessings coming from him, the Father and the Son.
Since the times of the early Christians, this have been our prayer and greeting to one another: ‘The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all I make it my special prayer today as the Church celebrates the mystery of the Holy Trinity.
Jesus said, ‘I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.’
John 16:12-15