Dear Friends,
I took a few days this past week and went to northern Minnesota to rest, to hike and to simply be with God for a bit. It is a part of the world that I often explored in my younger years. As a young priest I organized an annual trip with high school age students to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. I also spent lots of time over the years on the north shore of Lake Superior with Fr. Ralph Goman, a good friend and former spiritual director. He had friends who owned a cabin on the lake, and he would spend a few weeks there each summer. This year’s trip was a chance to reconnect with those memories and with the beauty of nature.
The beauty of nature did not disappoint. Whether it was the majesty of the largest fresh water lake in the world or the power of a cascading waterfall or the simplicity of a flower blooming along a hiking trail, the immense creativity of our God was ever present. Most of the time, I found myself alone along those beauty-filled hikes. I wondered about this God of ours that would make things so spectacular and then hide them deep in the north woods. Clearly, this God of ours was not interested in putting these creations where they could easily be seen. If I wanted to see the beauty, I had to get out of my car and walk a distance while communing with mosquitos. God was not interested in the number of people who saw the creation but the depth of the encounter for those who took the time to seek out the beauty.
On my drive north, I listened to books and got caught up on a big backlog of podcasts. One of those podcasts was an interview of Peter Kreeft, a retired philosophy professor, a favorite of Bishop Barron, who told a story about meeting Mother Teresa several decades ago. There was a large crowd at their local Catholic parish for her talk. Kreeft said that everyone who met her came away with the same conclusion. There were more than 200 people in line. Mother Teresa shook hands with each individual for a long time. Yet, every single person that was asked about the encounter said that she spoke to them, looked at them, and shook hands with them as if they were the only person there. A gracious, quiet, focused, loving attention was centered on the person before her. Her attention was devout and sacred. The love she had was given to that person fully for those few moments. Kreeft went on to say that many stories of those who meet modern saints are full of this kind of loving attention: they put into practice what Jesus teaches, they build up within them an ability to see with heavenly eyes, they focus with godly love.
Those of you in our Cabrini Communities have been reading and reflecting on the different aspects of prayer for the past six months. I hope that putting those teachings into practice has given you the opportunity to be like other holy ones, to see the world with a heavenly vision, to know what God thinks is important, and to take the time to love what God places before you. This can be experienced on a trip to a place of beauty or over a morning cup of coffee as you prayed for those you love. If you have not had a chance to put those prayer suggestions into practice, maybe you could start this week? Wouldn’t it be great to have the peace we feel when we are on a restful vacation all the time? Wouldn’t it be great to look into the eyes of another with the same love that Mother Teresa had – to see with heavenly eyes.
Peace,
Fr. Damian