Mtr Margaret Babcock

Dear Friends,

Many years ago, some parishioners called me early in the morning to tell me their young teen daughter had run away during the night. I hurried over to be with them. They had already called the police and all the girl’s friends. The note she left did not indicate where she might be. After praying together, her father, another adult friend and I decided to drive around to see if we could find her.

Mom stayed by the phone as the three of us headed out in different directions. I drove slowly through strange neighborhoods, feeling hopeless, just following intuition. I knew this was futile. Then I turned a corner and there she was—trudging down the sidewalk, bowed under an overstuffed backpack. I pulled into a driveway, jumped out and, in a second, she was in my arms. Somehow, I had arrived in the right place at the right time to help restore a child to safety and reconcile a family.

Today we celebrate St. Philip the Evangelist. He is most famous for the story we read in Acts 8:26-40, where he miraculously ends up in the right place, at the right time, to introduce an Ethiopian eunuch to Christ.

How did Philip know to go down the wilderness road that particular day? How did he know he should go up to this stranger from a different country and culture and begin a conversation? In the first case, Acts says an angel of the Lord told him to go and, in the latter, the Spirit directed him.

I wonder what these voices sounded like to Philip. Did they reverberate in his ears or were they more like an intuition that couldn’t be ignored? In my experience, I tuned into that feeling because of desperation, but Philip wasn’t spurred on by any emergency. I wonder how he became sensitive enough to hear the urgings of the Spirit during ordinary times.

I also wonder how we can tune in to opportunities to follow God’s call, even in our busy lives. Perhaps the key is to look intentionally for God’s pattern, and practice listening to the Spirit through prayer and meditation. If, like Philip, we focus on God’s presence and invitation to participate in Love, perhaps we will find ourselves more often in the right place, at the right time, to do God’s will.

Blessings,

—Mtr Margaret