Welcoming the Holy
Here we invite you to take time for yourself in personal prayer. The following spiritual reflection offers words and images which we hope will evoke for you an experience of God.
By: Sister Donna Del Santo
Reflection
This Sunday we will celebrate the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord and the 29th World Day for Consecrated Life. I’d like to offer you excerpts of Pope Francis’ homily for this feast in 2022 for your reflection.
Two elderly people, Simeon and Anna, await in the Temple for the fulfilment of the promise that God made to his people: the coming of the Messiah. Yet theirs is no passive expectation, it is full of movement. Let us look at what Simeon does. First, he is moved by the Spirit; then he sees salvation in the Child Jesus and finally, he takes him into his arms (cf. Lk 2:26-28). Let us simply consider these three actions and reflect on some important questions for us.
First question: What moves us? Simeon goes to the Temple, “moved by the spirit”. It is the Holy Spirit that makes Simeon’s heart burn with desire for God and keeps expectation alive in his heart.
Those words “moved by the spirit” remind us that we too are to be attentive to the interior movements of the Spirit. We can also ask who moves us? Is it the Holy Spirit, or the spirit of this world?
A second question: What do our eyes see? Simeon, moved by the Spirit, sees and recognizes Christ. And he prays, saying: “My eyes have seen your salvation”. This is the great miracle of faith: it opens eyes, transforms gazes, changes perspectives and gives new ways to see ourselves, others and all the situations that we experience, even those that are most painful.
Let us place ourselves before the Lord like Simeon and Anna and ask for eyes to see goodness and to discern the ways of God. The Lord will give them to us, if we ask with joy, with courage, and without fear.
Finally, a third question: what do we take into our own arms? Simeon took Jesus into his arms. It is a touching scene, full of meaning and unique in the Gospels. God has placed his Son in our arms too, because embracing Jesus is essential, it is the very heart of our faith.
When Simeon took Jesus into his arms, he spoke words of blessing, praise and wonder. Let us ask ourselves what “moves” our hearts and actions, what renewed vision are we being called to cultivate, and above all else, let us take Jesus into our arms. Like Simeon and Anna let us press forward with hope and joy. Amen.
Closing Prayer
Let us pray for each other as we strive to live out our baptismal call and in a special way, for those who are discerning a call to Consecrated Life. The Church and the world need all of us!!
