Something Precious

“You have been trusted
to look after something precious,
guard it
with the help of the Holy Spirit
who lives in us.”



How many things have been entrusted to us to look after, and is not every one of them ‘something precious’?

More than any other ‘something’, nothing can compare with the gift of God – and of faith in Him, that God Himself has given us. It is amazing to know that God – Who is infinitely beyond our reach and understanding – could have desired to become small and ‘contain-able’, so that we might have the ability to contain Him. It’s amazing to know that His desire in our regard is that we might know Him, seek Him and be in Him – that we might share in His Divine Life. And that is His will – He wants us, His creatures, to know Him … and we do. He has revealed Himself to us, has made Himself approachable, so much so that we can even call Him ‘Father’ – for so He is.

And, knowing what we are capable of – our wilfulness and our sinfulness – still, He has given Himself to us: has trusted us with the gift of His very self, and if we turn to the Holy Spirit who lives in us – His own spirit – we can guard and protect, nourish this gift, this precious gift we have been given.

We have been baptised into Christ’s body – the Church – in which God wholly abides. Another precious something with which we have been entrusted, that we might look after it.

This contemplative life, it seems to me, is a place where we should be most mindful of this precious gift. The Church in her history, has come near sometimes to disappearing, even dying; but miraculously has always recovered. In the middle ages, the dark ages, it was the monasteries, where the ‘re-birth’ began and overflowed into the world, renewing confidence and inspiring a return to fidelity to Christ and the gift of Himself He gave us – the gift of the Holy Spirit.

It seems to me that more than anything, we need always to be vigilant, to be discerning, so that this gift – this something precious – we have been entrusted to look after, may ever be the gift that Jesus gave us – and not stained by new ways of thinking or behaving or believing. When people are lost, we need to be a place where they meet Jesus, and are found.

Listen to His word; cherish every word He spoke, for He spoke only and always Himself. Love His word and live by it – by Him – and no other.

“In him is life, and the life is the light of men.
The light shines in the darkness
and the darkness has not overcome it.”

The darkness cannot overcome it.

“Lord, increase our faith.”