More from Michel Quoist

Okay...where did the weekend go?  It slipped away from me...and I am yawning, and tomorrow is the start of another week...so without further ado, I will let Michel Quoist write today's post....without much input from the peanut gallery.

If we knew how to listen to God, we would hear him speaking to us. For God does speak. He speaks in his Gospels. He also speaks through life--that new gospel to which we ourselves add a page each day. But we are rarely open to God's message, because our faith is too weak and our life too earthbound. To help us listen, at the beginning of our new intimacy with Christ, let us imagine what he would say if he himself interpreted his Gospels for the men of our day.

Michael Quoist

When I read this, I thought of the story about the disciples on the road to Emmaus....

Luke 24:27 Then he started at the beginning, with the Books of Moses, and went on through all the Prophets, pointing out everything in the Scriptures that referred to him. MSG

     

And another poem/prayer by Quoist....

Help me to say “Yes”

I am afraid of saying “Yes,” Lord.
Where will you take me?
I am afraid of drawing the longer straw,
I am afraid of signing my name to an unread agreement,
I am afraid of the “yes” that entails other “yeses.”
And yet I am not at peace.

You pursue me, Lord, you besiege me.
I seek out the din for fear of hearing you, but in a moment of silence you slip through.
I turn from the road,
for I have caught sight of you,
but at the end of the path
you are there awaiting me.
Where shall I hide?
I meet you everywhere.
Is it then impossible
to escape you?

But I am afraid to say “Yes,” Lord.
I am afraid of putting my hand in yours,
for you hold on to it.
I am afraid of meeting your eyes, for you can win me.
I am afraid of your demands,
for you are a jealous God.

I am hemmed in, yet I hide.
I am captured, yet I struggle,
and I fight
knowing that I am defeated.
For you are the stronger, Lord,
you own the world
and you take it from me.

When I stretch out my hand
to catch hold of people and things, they vanish before my eyes.

It’s no fun, Lord,
I can’t keep anything for myself.
The flower I pick
fades in my hands.
My laugh freezes on my lips.
The waltz I dance leaves me restless and uneasy.

Everything seems empty,
Everything seems hollow,
You have made a desert around me.
I am hungry and thirsty,
And the whole world
cannot satisfy me.

O Lord, I am afraid of your demands,
but who can resist you?
That your Kingdom may come
and not mine,
That your will may be done
and not mine,
Help me to say “Yes.”
Michel Quoist: Prayers of Life