​“An Understanding Heart”

I just got done working half the night in St. Mary’s, our infirmary unit at our provincial house in Hankinson.  I’m here helping out while two of our Sisters are in Germany to attend the General Chapter of Election.  
 
I’m grateful that the night went very smoothly, and I even had time for prayer and spiritual reading (plus a little light library work to help me keep awake).  
 
We have morning prayer and Mass here in about an hour, so I’m trying to keep busy until then so I don’t get too tired and doze off.  
 
A long summer’s nap is definitely on my agenda for later!  
 
Anyway, as I was just looking over the Mass readings for this Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, a couple of things stuck out to me.  
 
The first was King Solomon’s prayer for “an understanding heart.”
 
Although I know that I’ve read this passage before, it struck me this morning as a really beautiful prayer, no less relevant today than it was almost 3,000 years ago when the young monarch so famously uttered it.
 
As I moved on to the second reading, another well-known passage from Romans 8, another verse struck me: “We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.”  
 
It “popped out” at me because I had just read it an hour or two ago in a book I had picked up for spiritual reading.  
 
This verse is often quoted, especially in protestant circles, but sometimes I’ve found it difficult to understand or even fully accept.  When times are hard, and no progress seems to be made, it can be difficult for me to believe that it applies to my life, too.  
 
As I walk this journey, and as you walk your own, I think we do well to pray for this “understanding heart,” that we may gratefully acknowledge God’s working in our lives for good, even when we don’t see it.