Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: August 9 (Fr. Kevin Mac Donald, C.Ss.R.)

There are many directions we can go with the readings this Sunday. Finding God in the silence is the one that stands out most to me. Elijah experienced God’s presence on Mount Horeb in a “tiny whispering voice.” When Jesus dismissed the crowds that he had just fed with bread and fish and sent his disciples away in their boat, he stayed behind on the mountain, alone with God in the silence. When Peter had his attention on Jesus, the waves and wind receded into the background, and he was able to step out in faith onto the water. And when Jesus calmed the seas and joined his disciples in the boat, those twelve men, experiencing the sudden silence, realized who Jesus really was and “did him homage, saying, “Truly, you are the Son of God.” God waits for us in the silence. God knows exactly what we need at this moment and desires to give it to us. When we shift our attention from the many distractions that surround us, God’s gentle voice speaks to our hearts. Poets understand this better than most. I think the Carmelite nun, Jessica Powers, says it best: The Garments of GodGod sits on a chair of darkness in my soul. He is God alone, supreme in His majesty. I sit at His feet, a child in the dark beside Him; my joy is aware of His glance and my sorrow is tempted to nest on the thought that His face is turned from me. He is clothed in the robes of His mercy, voluminous garments– not velvet or silk and affable to the touch, but fabric strong for a frantic hand to clutch, and I hold to it fast with the fingers of my will. Here is my cry of faith, my deep avowal to the Divinity that I am but dust. Here is the loud profession of my trust. I need not go abroad to the hills of speech or the hinterlands of music for a crier to walk in my soul where all is still. I have this potent prayer through good or ill: here in the dark I clutch the garments of God.                 Jessica Powers