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IMG_2691As I look out my window this morning all is still. There is no wind and the gentlest snow is falling, so quiet as to disturb nothing of the silence that envelops the creation. In this moment the response to the first reading seems out of place with its refrain of “PRAISE AND EXALT HIM ABOVE ALL FOREVER” (from the Book of Daniel). The lines between repetitions of the refrain fairly shout wild activity with images of seas and rivers, dolphins and all water creatures, birds of the air, beasts wild and tame…but the line that spoke to me in the midst of this was: “Everything growing from the earth, bless the Lord.” I look out and see only bare trees and think of all the plants and bushes that we have cut down in preparation for winter. It seems as if nothing has survived the cold, but then a verse we often use for funerals comes to mind. “They seemed in the view of the foolish to be dead…” With that, I begin to feel the energy of those bulbs, sleeping now, which in the spring will amaze us with their beautiful flowers. And I know it is the same with us. The season that is upon us is the best for entering our “inner room” and recalling what is always happening in us if we are attentive. Our on-going creation – especially in the silence – calls us daily toward the recognition of God’s life in us which will appear, when we make ourselves ready, in the flowering of our truest selves.