January 39 – Nearness

’Tis a heady thing in life when someone wants to be NEAR us.



What would romance be if nearness were missing?



Parenting without nearness is a flavorless peach.



Friendships are nearness, even when friends are far apart, the nearness of correspondence or telephone calls and visits whenever we can make them.



We can tell when others want to be near us, and we can tell when they don’t. They can tell that about us, too.



God knows if we want to be near Him today. He knows our business, our obligations, our need to relax and to recreate, too. Do we know that we can be near Him in all that we do?



The monastic life is an attempt to develop a life of unbroken nearness to God. The postulant does not start from there, but that’s where she is headed.



To quote Ben Bailey, “You in?”