The guide for week 34 of the Online Retreat in Everyday Time is here.
All those weeks and months ago, when this retreat started, and even though I’d been through it before, 34 weeks seemed like a LOOONNNGGG time. It’s less than the duration of most pregnancies. It’s not a year. And yet, in the window of this time, there’s been room for a shift, one that can be felt and seen and documented…by God, if not by me.
I was going to go back to the beginning and explore just how far I’ve come. When I went to the first week, though, I read the quote from the first week: “Do not expect, look for or demand progress. Enjoy and live the process, even though as with physical exercise, you may not like doing them every day. … We allow God to give the increase, the insights, the progress. We begin expecting God to be busy laboring on our part of creation which we have found quite unfinished as a work of art.”
Do not expect, look for or demand progress. And here, 34 weeks later, I’m still examining that statement and swallowing the urge to mark measure my growth.
How can I keep the lessons learned, the experiences weighed, the insights gained?
For me, it’s all contained in the the last line of this week’s In These or Similar Words: “Give me only your love and your grace. I want nothing more.”
Love and grace. Grace and love. Surrounded with the hug of Jesus’ arms, his mother and angels and saints all around me, what else do I need?
Now, the challenge is going to be remembering that…
