"This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased."

It is wonderful that we begin Ordinary Time with the last two lines of the Gospel this Sunday being: "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased."
              We have heard it so many times - God loves us. We have heard it countless times from our religion education classes that we took as children. We take it for granted. We know it in our minds but have we experienced it in our hearts?
              The mystical life, the experience of God's love, is not just something for the "super-spiritual" to experience. Every Christian is invited to experience the Love of God.
 Jesus says that if we want to experience the love of God, or as He puts it, if we want to receive the Holy Spirit, all we have to do is ask for it. Then comes the tough part - we have to wait to receive it. This requires that we look at prayer as more than just a one-way street where we ask God for stuff and then get back to our daily routine. It requires that we ask God for the Holy Spirit and then wait to receive it in faith. This is exceedingly difficult to do in our modern age because it requires that we do things our work obsessed culture distains. Encountering God's love requires that we be passive, unproductive and patient. It requires us to be still. This is why monks and nuns cherish silence - because it is in that silence that our turbulent lives and minds start to calm, and our souls can be surprised by God's love in the depths of our hearts. 
God bless,
Fr. Scott