Waiting Patiently

10/8/2022

A Reflection on the Psalm for August 14th, 2022
Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Psalm 40

R. Lord, make haste to help me.

I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry. R.

R. Lord, make haste to help me.

He drew me up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. R.

R. Lord, make haste to help me.

He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord. R.

R. Lord, make haste to help me.

As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me. You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God. R.

R. Lord, make haste to help me.

Early on in my novitiate (a year where we learn to be a religious sister), I struggled with boredom. I had been a student, living in the world and running my life like I had a duty to fill up as many of the 24 hours in a day as possible, and sometimes more hours than possible. Moving to the structured and quiet time of novitiate was jarring. After a month or so, I told the novice mistress that I was bored. In response, she gave me the job of being the “hebdomadary,” a role that meant I had to arrive in the chapel 10 minutes earlier than everyone else, figure out what page we were supposed to be on in our breviaries, and then announce those pages when the others came. This did precisely nothing to solve the problem of me being bored, but it did mean that I had to get up earlier in the mornings. I believe that was the last time I ever complained about boredom. What Sr. Therese’s response did teach me was the value of waiting patiently.

The first line in this Psalm reminds us that God listens to our cries when we wait for Him patiently. I am so eager to get to the care and concern described in this psalm. I want God to incline to me and have Him hear my cry. I want Him to draw me up from the bog that I’m in and to set my feet on solid ground. I want Him to make my steps secure and to guarantee the safety and goodness of the path that I’m on. I want Him to set a new song in my mouth, to replace the lament that I so often set in there. I want God to help me, to deliver me, to take thought of me.

And the wonderful news is that God is doing all of these things! He’s anxious to do all of these things for me and for you and for each of us. I just have to wait patiently. Just.

It may be that waiting patiently is one of the hardest things we have to do in life. It involves letting go of both the process and the outcome. In waiting patiently, we recognize that we cannot speed up what will come by our own actions. We can fill our time with busyness to ignore the passing of time, or we can complain about the time we have to wait, but we cannot make it come any sooner. Similarly, waiting patiently takes us out of the illusion that we are in complete control of what will come our way. It reminds us that, despite our efforts and hopes and worries, in the end it is God’s will that is done, and not our own.

He will come, He will help, and He will deliver us. In the meantime, ours is the difficult work of waiting patiently.

Sr. Gemma

3 Comments

Alana

10/8/2022 07:30:01 am

Thanks for this Sister Gemma. So beautiful and true. Waiting it so hard. I heard someone once say that God is never late. And while I believe that, have experienced it, and try to surrender to it in trust - it doesn’t mean the waiting is ever easy - but I trust Him that it will always be worth the wait. Help us Lord to wait patiently. Amen. 😊🙏🏻💕xo

Michelynne

10/8/2022 09:14:54 am

Waiting patiently...letting go of both process and outcome. Wisdom here this morning. Thank you for this Sr.

Lisa

14/8/2022 07:02:35 am

I really needed to hear this. I have been feeling restless the past few months - waiting for God to reveal His will for the next step of my journey. As you said:
“He will come, He will help, and He will deliver us. In the meantime, ours is the difficult work of waiting patiently.”
Thanks Sr. Gemma!