This morning, with the Feast of Benedict just behind us and the Feast of the Annunciation soon to come, I realized I couldn’t quite settle into today, Thursday of the Fourth Week of Lent. Echoes of Benedict and anticipation of the Annunciation kept filling my heart and thoughts.
But then, on my ‘morning commute’ to Lauds, I paused in the tunnel through our renovation zone and listened to the silence of the early morning. The work crew had not yet arrived to fill the air with transformation. The building was soundless. Tools were still. Everything was filled with possibility, with the promise of a word soon to be spoken. In the silence, I finally anchored my feet in today, a day which I will seek to listen with the ear of Benedict and respond with the fiat of Mary.
The liturgical cycle doesn’t stop on a dime as it moves from day to day, clicking from page to page as if it were slideshow presentation. Rather the graces of the liturgical cycle settle deeply into our hearts, holding us and carrying us from grace to grace and from word to word. Echoes and anticipation are among these graces, helping anchor us in the moment as they call us to live more deeply the days and seasons of life in God.
Today’s Entrance Antiphon for Mass contains the phrase, “constantly seek His face.” May our search for God be daily and constant, and may our morning commute, and every journey, be a voyage from grace to grace as we live fully each day that God gives us.