Practice

It is Lent and we are exploring ourselves, our relationship to the world and our faith in God. Last Sunday at the Basilica de St Sernin in downtown Toulouse I heard the minister talk about examining our choices – specifically with respect to upcoming municipal elections in France.

It is an important invitation from God. And an important call to be responsible and active in our faith. I identified very strongly with Gisèle’s reflection last week (07March2010) in which she highlighted the need to practice our faith – to act out the things we believe in ... She said ...

“The more we actually practice the teachings of Jesus - forgiveness or non-judgment in our own behavior, generosity or compassion, trust, thankfulness - the more we experience God ... In this way we are responding to the welcome of God, the holy invitation to come, see, seek, forsake and return.

God will always be beyond our naming or understanding... and we won’t ever get to the bottom of God. (However) in our willingness and our practice - in the suffering and the joy and in the grit of our lives and in our practice of the virtues - we reveal that God has indeed been tending and growing us…we experience it as real … God, here right under our noses, in our thinking, in our beating hearts."

I have always come at “practice” from a social responsibility point of view – believing that it is our responsibility as Christians to exercise leadership in working for social justice. I now appreciate even more the importance of practice – it is an important medium for strengthening our faith.

And essential for us to experience God.