Daily Reflection Friday of the Third Week of Advent

I had the blessed opportunity to attend my first retreat at the Loyola Jesuit Center in 2+ years—praise God—and I’m thankful to report I had a joyful, God-filled experience with my fellow 38 retreatants. During our first talk of the retreat, Fr. Tom Marciniak said, “Salvation is about silence,” urging us to be active listeners throughout the weekend. In my retreat experience, I found his words to be accurate—because I opened my heart to God, I discovered that I needed to invite the grace of joy into my life. Once again, praise God!



Then to my surprise, in today’s first reading, God tells Ahaz to request a sign from him. Even when Ahaz replies with humility that he will not “tempt the Lord,” God insists on showing His power. Wait, what? Didn’t I just spend a whole weekend learning that silence is the best way to deepen my relationship with God?



However, this isn’t the only place in the Bible where God tells us to petition him. When Jesus teaches the Apostles how to pray, Jesus includes a verse about petitioning: “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11). Later, in Matthew 7:7, Jesus says, “Ask, and it will be given you.”

Long before this retreat, I learned and accepted that God wants to bless me with abundance. But then how do I avoid treating him like some faraway wish-granter?



To answer this question, I think about my relationships with my best friends. If I did most of the talking in our relationships, there wouldn’t be much room for us to engage, right? The same goes if I only listened to everything my friends had to say—my friends would want to know what I think. Therefore, there must be a balance between talking and listening for our relationships to grow.



When I started this retreat, I was certain I would tackle one of my deeper insecurities, telling God how I think it started, how I might confront it, etc. But after Fr. Tom said, “Salvation is about silence,” I opened my heart to listen. And that’s when God put the grace of joy on my heart instead. Near the end of the weekend, I responded by writing in my journal, “Welcome, Joy, back into my heart.”