Listen

“I rose this morning early as usual, and went to my desk.

but it’s spring,

and the thrush is in the woods,

somewhere in the twirled branches, and he is singing.

And so, now, I am standing by the open door.

And now I am stepping down onto the grass.

I am touching a few leaves.

I am noticing the way the yellow butterflies

move together in a twinkling cloud, over the field.

And I am thinking: maybe just looking and listening

is the real work.

Maybe the world, without us,

is the real poem.”

“From the Book of Time” by Mary Oliver

shall be given him."

From the Collect or Opening Prayer of this Sunday’s Mass we hear: “O God, who have commanded us to listen to your beloved Son, be pleased, we pray, to nourish us inwardly by your word, that, with spiritual sight made pure, we may rejoice to behold your glory.” In the Transfiguration, the Father calls us to listen to the voice of his Son. Take time during the week to go to a park, work in a garden, or find your own mountaintop to be immersed in the beauty of nature and contemplate the words of the Master. Maybe “looking and listening” is the real work!