The Way to the Heart of God

It’s my opinion that people who have too much to do need a patron saint. I nominate St. Gerard Majella, (1726-1755), a Redemptorist who was credited with bilocation — that is, the ability to be in two places at once!

I’m not so sure that bilocation is the answer to the problem of being overcommitted, however. It’s likely similar to multitasking, which gives us the illusion of getting more done but actually wastes more time than it saves and has a detrimental effect on our concentration and creativity.

Many people today believe, as writer Elizabeth Bibesco suggested, that being in a hurry is one of the tributes we pay to life. Our world is full of so many beautiful things to see, places to visit, books to read, food to eat, and people to befriend that we try to cram in as much as we can — and as a consequence, we often don’t fully experience anything.

It’s telling that St. Gerard was not a Benedictine, the only order that takes a vow of stability. What our life lacks in width, it makes up for in depth. Each moment that we fully attend to leads us to the heart of God and relieves us of the anxiety that we might be missing out on something that is happening elsewhere.

As Imogene Baker, OSB, said, “Be where you are and do what you’re doing.” When we attend to the present moment, wherever we happen to be, we encounter the presence of God. To paraphrase St. Benedict, “What could be sweeter to us than the voice of God calling to us? Behold in his loving kindness, the Lord shows us the way to life.”