Listen

Paul stood up in the middle of the council on Mars Hill and said, “People of Athens, I see that you are very religious in every way. As I was walking through town and carefully observing your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: ‘To an unknown God.’ What you worship as unknown, I now proclaim to you. God, who made the world and everything in it, is Lord of heaven and earth. He doesn’t live in temples made with human hands. Nor is God served by human hands, as though he needed something, since he is the one who gives life, breath, and everything else.”

Acts 17:22-25

Think

Have you ever looked for something that was right in front of you? I look in a hurry, think I’ve checked everything, and finally discover that what I was looking for was there all along. Then I realize that I was looking, but not paying attention. Something similar happened to the Athenians in our scripture. In the midst of their religious, philosophical, and cultural life, they had an altar dedicated to an “unknown God.” God was near, but they did not recognize. They were surrounded by ideas, debates, and rituals, but they did not stop to perceive God’s living presence.

We fill our lives with tasks, worries, and emotions, and we stop noticing that God is with us all the time. God never leaves us. Some people go through life not realizing that God loves them and does justice for them. Our actions can remind them that God is present in their difficulty. Today, God invites you to discover God’s abiding presence in the everyday, in the simple, and in what has always been there.

Luis Felipe Oliveros

Question to Ponder:

In what moments of your life have you overlooked God’s constant presence?

Pray

God, help me to recognize your presence in my daily paths. Amen.

Go

Set aside a few minutes to be in silence before God. Then go and demonstrate God’s presence with a concrete gesture of kindness.