An open weathered book on a wooden windowsill, soft morning light filtering through linen curtains with a small sprig of olive leaves

a passage to keep

The Will of God

by Joan Chittister

from Wisdom Distilled from the Daily

A clear-eyed word for the seasons that will not lift — that the circumstances we cannot change may be the very ground God is using to grow us beyond ourselves.

If God is present in my life then I must accept the will of God for me. When circumstances persist even though I bend every effort to eliminate them, then clearly those are the will of God for me.
There is something in them that I must learn to deal with. There is something about them that is essential to my growth.
There are, at least, other ways and other answers and other plans than mine that obviously bear recognition if I am to grow beyond myself and come to appreciate the beauty in others.

— Joan Chittister

to sit with

A Reflection

Chittister offers a hard, honest grace: the thing you have prayed to be rid of — and cannot — may not be a failure of prayer. It may be the classroom. The slow teacher. The shape of the hands God is using to widen your heart.

Sit today with whatever circumstance has refused to move. Ask, gently, what it is asking of you. Not why it is here, but who you might become because it is.

✦ did this stir your spirit?

Share this with a heart that needs it

selah.

A few words to carry into the quiet hours.

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