Monday, September 14, 2015

Forget the Valentine's Card, Isn't My Presence Enough?

It's amazing the things the Lord will draw up in prayer.  At my Diaconate Ordination I promised to pray the Liturgy of the Hours, which is a set of prayers that you pray throughout the day; 5 sets to be exact.  I was praying what is known as the Office and Morning Prayer in the Chapel and the Lord brought me back to 13 years ago when I was in College.

At the end of my sophomore year and into most of my Junior year I dated this amazing Catholic woman named Katie.  She had become my college sweet heart as we spent most of our time together outside of the Newman center, Mass, and school.  Through my junior year, my engineering academics began to pick up especially in my second semester with Quantum Physics, Thermodynamics, Material science class and lab to just to name a few classes that I remember.  Needless to say, the amount of time needed to spend on my class work was pretty high.  Katie understanding this during the start of February and our upcoming first Valentine's day celebration simply told me, "Michael, I know that you are really busy and I don't expect much for Valentine's Day, if you just get me a card I will be happy."  What a great girlfriend right?

Well leading up to Valentine's day, which fell on a Saturday, Katie's Grandfather passed away.  During the week, her family picked her up and they went off to Ohio for the wake and funeral.  So when she returned on Friday evening, I made the promise to myself to not let my homework or lab reports to get in the way our Valentine's day.  I woke up on Saturday (probably around 10 AM it was a college schedule) and spent all day with her from lunch, to a park even in the cold, dinner, and movie to end the night.  After about 12 hours and before we had to say goodnight, Katie started to cry.  She said to me, "Michael, all I asked from you was a card, and you didn't even do that!"  I, out of frustration, tried to explain to Katie, that my Valentine's day gift was clearing my entire day, WASN'T MY PRESENCE ENOUGH?

Fast forward to last Saturday as I'm praying my Liturgy of the Hours!  The Lord brought light into my own brokenness.  The Lord pointed to all the things I have asked for and how I was caught up in my own tears and frustration with the Lord not answering my requests. Yet the Lord asked me in a simple phrase, with this story in mind, ISN'T MY PRESENCE ENOUGH?  

Needless to say, I sat there silent.