Do you accept?

Many of you know that Anna Brizzi was elected to the General Council.

Just the other day the phone ran at 1:30am in the morning. We were "expecting" the call, but somehow it seemed unreal. The question was posed: Do you accept? The response needed to be immediate: Yes.

Less than 24 hours later she was headed to Bologna to begin a new part of her journey, to serve the Institute, to continue her missionary work in her homeland - where she hasn't lived for 27 years.

She left, but we remain. But to each one of us God is asking the question: Do you accept? And because we do not have someone on the line, prodding us for a response, we might find ourselves hemming and hawing longer than we ought. That question, even for Anna, was not: Do you want to come? Do you accept moving? Do you accept a new life? Do you want to help us?  It was far more profound and far more simple: Do you accept MY will?

Everything else is unknown. Even the most expected things never come to pass and the most unexpected appear out of nowhere.  Challenges become gifts and gifts become crosses, and therefore even greater gifts. We can not possibly say yes to unknown future. But, we CAN and MUST say YES to the moment. Do you accept?

Do you accept what I am giving you right here, right now? Do you accept my mercy as support and my compassion as consolation? Do you accept ME, I am here...now?

To accept the "big" things, we must accept the "little" things... and BEING little!