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The Grace of God in Winter

Those of us who have worked a 9 to 5 schedule know that in the winter we leave our office or the workplace in the early darkness of the season. And unless we intentionally position ourselves --- while at work or otherwise --- we let pass with little notice that particular movement of light diminishing into darkness. As one of the privileged staff of Mercy Center I am often, and fortunately, distracted in the winter by beauty of the setting sun; so much so that I make every effort to be present to the sun's rising and setting of each day. The gift of being present to the twilights and dawns of our days is the divine wonder of getting caught in the mystery and moments of transcedence. We experience the breathtaking sunsets that draw us deep into contemplation, but there are the less extravagant morning and evening displays of winter gray more reflective of our less than mystical everyday lives.

Winter's spiritual invitation has many callings, from the softer stirrings of melancholy or fallowness anticipating fruits of Spring to the more harsh exposure of sorrow and deep chill in need of warm embrace. No matter our spiritual inclinations, winter is always a time for retreat with its affinity to stillness, home, haven, withdrawal, refuge, abandonment. Many a spiritual writer has reflected on the spiritual dimensions of presence, of light and darkness, and each winter I return to the reflections of Jean-Pierre de Caussade (Abandonment to Divine Providence) to guide me into the presence of God's grace in the coming and going of winter days:

God reveals himself to us through the most commonplace happenings in a way just as mysterious and just as truly and as worthy of adoration as in the great occurrences of history and the Scriptures.

Every moment reveals God to us. Faith is our light in this life. Faith unlocks God's treasury. It is the key to all the vastness of his wisdom. There is no peace more wonderful than the peace we enjoy when faith shows us God in all created things. All that is dark becomes light. Faith pierces through the darkest shadows and the thickest clouds to reach the truth, embraces it and can never be torn from it.

The realization that God is active in all that happens at every moment is the deepest knowledge we can have in this life of the things of God. It is a continuous revelation ... It is a foretaste of paradise, which is, in this life, only sensed imperfectly through a veil of shadows. When God gives himself thus, the commonplace becomes extraordinary. The path along which we go is a miracle and a constant delight ... turning all the ordinary affairs of life into things which are rare and wonderful.

May you be warmly embraced by God's presence in the absence of winter's light, and may God's grace illuminate your every season of this new year.