Fr Alex Swain

Beloved in Christ,

Mtr Joanna, at the Healing Eucharist this past Tuesday, gave a wonderful homily reflecting on expecting God to show up in our lives, and expecting blessing rather than anxiety and busyness and stress.

Unfortunately, my natural inclination is to expect the latter. 

As I try to fight busyness and try to claim that this isn’t how it should be, i.e., Advent should be slower, and more calm, and more contemplative, I experience frustration and a profound sense of spiritual lack.

But the words of Revelation hush me today. 

The stillness that comes when bearing witness to God and God’s presence, where things suddenly snap into a proper place, clicked.

“Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come.”

“To him who loves us and freed us from our sins…”

“I am the Alpha and the Omega…”

I marvel at these words.

In the midst of busyness, God is yet the Alpha and Omega.

In the midst of busyness, we are loved and freed.

In the midst of busyness, we receive grace and peace from the one who transcends time and space.

And suddenly, being in the midst of busyness becomes brimming with potential to encounter God.

Rather than fight the busyness—which is what I try—I can instead look at it and say, “Where will I meet God today?”

And it is in meeting God, I realize, that things still, and quiet comes, and peace reigns.

Not the other way around.

Stillness and quiet and peace are not necessary catalysts for encountering God (though I don’t argue that they help!).

Encountering God is what subsequently brings stillness, and quiet, and peace—even in the midst of a maelstrom.

So, my friends, I encourage you to expect blessing, to expect the inbreaking of God, in the midst of our mundane, busy, and often over-full lives.

Expect to meet the one who is and who was and who is to come in every moment, in every breath.

Intention to meet God in the midst of our lives is a spiritual discipline in and of itself, which slowly trains us to recognize God more and more regularly.

During Advent, may we cultivate the expectation of God in our day-to-day.

In so doing, I am convinced that we will learn to experience the peace which passes all understanding.

Yours in Christ,

—Fr Alex