Here and Now

I think I’m supposed to be learning another lesson right now, about living in the present moment.​

I am “home” helping my mother, who recently fractured her shoulder. On the way back here to the Twin Cities, a friend with whom I was travelling gave me a great insight.

She told me a little prayer she had learned. It went something like this: “Lord, I know that you are here with me in this present moment. I want to be with you in this present moment.” She pointed out that God is always in the present, and that when we dwell on the past or the future we are not truly being with Him where He wants us to be, but are caught up elsewhere.

This lesson has been especially poignant to me this week…

In the back of my mind, I wonder about the coming days, how long I should stay here to help out and what will happen when I go back to my regular workplace (with the challenges that assuredly await me there).

I don’t know the answers to these questions, but I know that I can stay with Jesus in this present moment, leaving the rest up to Him (easier said than done for me).

This morning at Mass, this present Presence of Jesus struck me powerfully. I was kneeling in prayer before communion. (At my home parish, the priests and those helping distribute communion go to the pews rather than having a communion line.)

All of a sudden, before I hardly knew what was happening, Father was in front of me. Jesus was there!

He was there with me, in the here and now, amidst my uncertainties and needs.

​It was such a beautiful, consoling reminder of how Jesus comes to us in our needs, in ways and moments that we least expect.