Simple Everyday Moments

A Reflection on the Second Reading for July 19th, 2020:
Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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Romans
8.26-27

Brothers and sisters: The Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.

And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
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Pause. Pray.

And then read more...

"As the Spirit leads"… don’t you often hear that being said? 

Whenever we have an activity in church (or outside of the church), we often lift up that activity in prayer and trust that everything will turn out right. When faced with a decision to make and we are not sure what to do, we trust that the Spirit will lead us to make the right decision.

The Spirit is active in all aspects of our lives, we just don’t often realize it. However, I believe that the Spirit is most active during our times of weakness.

Whenever we are down or feeling frustrated or helpless, our minds are focussed on what is causing our stress. We pray to God for deliverance from that situation. During those times we cannot say how the situation will resolve itself. We just pray and, as we often say, God will do the rest.

Saint Paul tells us in this passage that the Spirit intercedes for us. The Spirit knows what to pray according to the will of God. This is very encouraging — especially for those of us who are suffering and are not able to come up with the right words to say or the right thoughts to have. We are assured that our attempts to pray to God are not in vain. 

I can think of some instances where I sensed that the Spirit was working in my life. One was when I was first diagnosed with a dreaded disease. My mind was blank, I was probably in shock. I knew that I wanted to pray but I didn’t know what to pray for. Would I pray for healing? For strength? For my doctors to give me the right treatment? What was running in my mind was “Lord what is Your will for me?” Then I talked to a priest who told me that even Jesus asked to be delivered from His suffering at Gethsemane so it was okay for me to pray for healing. I felt the Spirit speaking to me through the priest.

Last Father’s Day I was preparing to cook a special lunch to celebrate the occasion. I did so many things that day that when it was nearing the time for lunch I could not get myself to start the meal preparation. For some reason I was dilly dallying. Then my son arrived with a big bag containing our Father’s Day meal! It was a big surprise for us! Our children from Toronto and Vancouver and the Halifax kids got together on Viber to plan a Father’s Day celebration for us. I then realized I was being led not to start cooking because our surprise meal was coming. Sometimes even in the simple everyday moments of  life the Spirit leads us.

Let us pray: Come Holy Spirit! Come into our lives. May we realize Your presence even in the simple and ordinary events. Thank you for always being there for us. Amen.

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Liz Venezuela

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