0 MISSED CALLS

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I've been away for almost two weeks of vacation visiting family and friends. Being out of the monastery is a great opportunity to encounter God in all sorts of new ways and in varied circumstances, whether playing peek-a-boo with an infant or walking in a beautiful meadow as the sun is coming up, or sitting and enjoying the company of people I love.

MY RENT-A-PHONE

I, like most of my brothers in the monastery, compose part of the nine percent minority of American adults who do not own a cellphone.   The monastery owns a few, though, so you can sign one out to use when you're going on a long journey and it would be prudent to have one with you. So I had my flip-top rent-a-phone with me the past two weeks, and actually made a call. Nobody had my number, so I didn't receive any calls.

Later on I looked at my phone and saw that the screen had a little notice on it: "1 MISSED CALL." It seems that when I made my call I'd had to leave a message; that person got my number off of her phone and returned my call. Since my phone was off, I didn't get her return call. This was a simple everyday experience, but that notice "1 MISSED CALL" started me thinking.



MISSED CALLS

I began this post by commenting that vacation time is a good time to encounter God in new ways. Of course God is always communicating with us, but when we're out of our routine it's often easier for us to hear the divine voice. Well, I started reflecting on this idea of "missed calls."

I missed one call from a friend this week. How many calls from God have I missed in the past two weeks? Did I miss any special opportunities to meet the Lord? I don't want to dwell on the negative, though, since I had tons of conversations with God during that time. So maybe I should just be grateful for those, for the calls that got through, and not worry about the ones that I may have missed.

I was back in the routine this morning; as I was walking into church at 5:30 to spend an hour before the Blessed Sacrament, a brother monk who is struggling with Alzheimer's came up to me and asked: "Can we go out for a walk somewhere today?" I have all this laundry to do, emails to check, and other important things to catch up on after being away, but naturally I said "Sure! I'll see you later and we can set up a time."

That was at 5:30 a.m.; 0 missed calls so far. Wouldn't it be great if it stayed at 0 for the rest of the day?
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YIKES! Sorry,  Lord, I was having a bad day.

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