Tag: Waiting

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Minute Meditation – What Waiting Reveals

How much is revealed about who we really are when we are forced to wait, especially when we’re not sure what we’re waiting for. Is that what Mary was doing—just waiting and praying—when the undreamed of annunciation happened: Gabriel invading her private waiting, announcing that the Lord was with her? She was being told that whoever it was she was waiting for was greater than she imagined and was already there: the Word of God. And Mary says, “Be it done unto me according your word.” So it was for Mary; so it can be for us who wait in silent prayer seemingly unable to do anything to change our circumstances. We can choose to be and let God do. We can choose to let the Holy Spirit work, let the Holy Spirit come upon us that the Word might be born again in and through us. We can be still, and let the Word send down His Spirit.

— from the book Nourishing Love: A Franciscan Celebration of Mary
by Murray Bodo, OFM

//Franciscan Media//

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Minute Meditation – In the Waiting

And now in this new rebirth of Jesus, Mary could still see her own love in the eyes that looked back at her as he walked upon the earthen floor, much as he had walked the first time he waddled and stumbled into her arms, a little baby boy becoming. She had held Jesus in her arms once he’d walked so determined but hesitantly toward her open arms; she had held him lifeless in her lap when he was taken down from the cross; she would now wait for him to embrace her with the love with which she had embraced him all the days of his life. Even when he left home to embrace the Father’s will that he preach and teach, suffer and die for the people of Israel, she embraced him lovingly in her heart every day as she waited for the next mystery to be revealed. When God works upon us, she thought, then the real working of our lives is in the waiting, waiting to receive what is given us when we wait upon the Lord in all we are and all we have.

— from the book Nourishing Love: A Franciscan Celebration of Mary
by Murray Bodo, OFM

//Franciscan Media//

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Seeking God in Suffering – When Waiting Feels Unbearable

When Waiting Feels Unbearable
DAY 2 | Psalm 130

I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope. —Psalm 130:5

One of my favorite pastors used to warn, “Never pray for patience; you will not like how God teaches you.” Most people are not very good at waiting, whether it’s for food to be served, a traffic light to change, or test results to arrive. In our fast-paced world, waiting is usually an irritating inconvenience.

As a child, I eagerly anticipated Christmas. As a teen, I counted down to graduation and leaving the nest. As an adult, the longest weeks I ever experienced were those leading up to the announcement that I was accepted into a three-year clinical trial for treatment of my second bout with cancer. My life depended on it.

When the psalmist writes that his “whole being waits,” perhaps you—like me—can relate to that feeling. His heart and soul long for a sign from God, a flicker of light while hanging out in the depths of darkness. He wanders back and forth between calling out to God and reminding himself of the goodness and faithfulness of God.

Fear creeps into our waiting when there’s a possibility of bad news—and that can make the situation feel unbearable. Like the psalmist, we must keep our eyes fixed on God, the source of hope for this life and forever. There is no outcome that God will not help us handle.
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Dear Lord, we cautiously pray for patience as we deal with irritating little things and major, life-altering, fearful things. Thank you for your infinite mercy. Infuse us with unshakable hope in your Word. Amen.
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