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.

The opening line of this Sunday’s epistle is one that makes my heart take a little leap!  Paul tells us that “the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us.”  
 
Wow!  
 
I don’t know about you, but I feel like I’ve had a fair share of suffering in the last few years.  From dealing with the manifold affects of a pandemic to workplace struggles to everything in between, the beginning of this second decade of the century hasn’t exactly been a breeze.  
 
There isn’t a time in history, though, that’s been immune from suffering, unless maybe you count the time before Adam and Eve made a world-shattering decision.   So, suffering is part of life for everyone, but that’s not my point.
 
The striking part is that, here, Paul is teaching us that despite how burdensome our current sufferings may seem, God’s plan is for something far greater.  Even if we feel like we’re in an abyss of sorrow, His plan for us in heaven goes to the opposite extreme - and beyond.  
 
Now, that’s encouraging!
 
Later in his passage, Paul brings in the image of a woman in labor, which fits in well with the above reflections.  I’ve never been in labor, but the analogy of creation groaning in labor pains makes sense to me.  It strikes me because a couple of people I was with were recently discussing the pains of childbirth and how their memory is soon overshadowed by the joy of a new life among us.  
 
I hadn’t realized that this poignant passage was in Romans, chapter eight, but I guess it shouldn’t come as a surprise.  This chapter, which comes right in the middle of the letter, is really a treasure-house of scriptural gems.  
 
Perhaps my favorite passage in the entire Bible comes a little later in the chapter, in verses 35-39, where Paul ponders over the power and steadfastness of Christ’s love:
“What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?…No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

I was doing a bit of reading earlier today from a book discussing the Divine Mercy devotions.  
 
Interestingly, the author was trying to make a distinction between one of St. Faustina’s experiences and other some visions of saints.  He mentioned how, at that time, children outside of her convent had been drawn by a bright light coming from there, concluding that Jesus had actually come to the saint’s cell in His glorified body.  
 
I had never heard this before and found it thought-provoking, if nothing else.  
 
Without giving this assertion much additional consideration, I went on with my day, which included a visit to the Blessed Sacrament for some prayer time.  
 
As I was praying before the tabernacle, it dawned on me that Jesus had actually come here in His glorified body as well.  
 
In the tabernacle, there He was…there He is!  
 
We are so blessed!  We need not be a mystic or visionary to experience our Lord’s physical presence!  
 
I am not meaning, in any measure, to diminish the significance of one of the greatest saints of the past century, but, these reflections stirred my heart to greater appreciation for the gift of Christ’s Eucharistic presence.
 
His wondrous, physical presence is only as far away as the nearest tabernacle!
 
In the meantime, before I visit Him next there, I remain grateful for His presence with us spiritually.
 
He is faithful to His promise: “…I am with you always, until the end of the age!”