Rummaging for God

Recently, I joined ten other Avila employees as we prepared to become Associates of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet. In the months we studied together, I believe we each grew deeper in our own spirituality and in our awareness of God’s gifts and graces in our lives.

As the year evolved, I remembered an article I had read by Fr. Dennis Hamm, S.J., a Jesuit priest and theologian at Creighton University, titled "Rummaging for God." Dennis described a process, based on the Examen, for finding God in the midst of a busy day. It begins by first asking for God’s help, reflecting back prayerfully through the day, and then focusing on a feeling associated with a moment where God may, or may not, have been present through the people, the circumstances, or the situations one encountered. At least that’s how I remember it now these twenty years later. The actual article, as it appeared in the May 14,1994, edition of America magazine can be downloaded at: http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/uvp/mismin/intersec/programs/Examen_more.doc

As I try to be faithful to the ministries I find myself in, this sense of finding God in the midst of my busy life has been important to me. I don’t consider myself an especially spiritual or holy person, yet I sense that God is present in my life and has always been. On reflection, I find God in the people I meet, in nature, and in the gifts of situations I confront daily. Also, I suspect God is there far more than I imagine if only I opened my eyes to see. I am often lacking in such awareness. I feel God when someone touches me or is present to me in a way I would have hardly imagined – and it surprises me. Sometimes an idea will come to me, and I can’t seem to get it out of my head. Musing it over, it just blossoms and grows. When I let it bubble and simmer, and consider it prayerfully, sometimes great things happen. Usually, they come from a sense of being at peace with the idea: It just seems right. I never get the sense of a direct contact with God, but I do feel that God has been present to me and I am blessed by this presence.

I find a certain comfort and strength in being open to the possibility that God might be active in my life and might be even more present if only I allowed myself to be more aware. Being in a faith-sharing community, I am heartened by the similar experiences of others, and I grow deeper in my resolve to notice. Like Dennis, I now find myself rummaging around, seeking God in the stuff of my daily life.