Waiting on God
Dear Philippine,
When I first met you I was impressed by your many qualities, which spoke deeply to my heart. Today I wish to reflect with you about your patient waiting, in faith and hope, to fulfil your dreams.
It began in 1792 when the monastery where you were a novice was confiscated and you had to return home. Then followed years of waiting before joining the Society, going to America, and finally, in 1841, to the Potawatomi, too old and sick to do anything but be “the woman who prays always.”
What message do you have for us today, Philippine? In our world of instant coffee, commmunication, gratification, even happiness, have we forgotten how to wait? To hope and pray? Have we forgotten how to follow a dream? To aim high?
What gave you the inspiration to continue knocking on the Lord’s door, believing your prayer will be granted? Was it your intense prayer life? Your love of the Eucharist? How do we learn to discern whether the Lord is saying “no” or “yes, but not yet”? To “wait for God’s time” and know when it arrives?
Only the poor know how to wait. Teach us that poverty of heart that knows it can do nothing of itself, is open to the will of the Lord and ready to wait for it to manifest itself. Teach us to have vision, to journey to new frontiers, to persevere in our dreams, wait for their fulfilment. As you did.
Author: Katie Mifsud, RSCJ, Community of MaltaImage: Milton Frenzel
