In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul talks about the grace of God, of how it should be open to all. It does not matter if we are Gentile or Jew - God offers us his grace and his salvation. With his grace, we can draw ever closer to the Lord on our journey.
It is sometimes difficult to discern God’s grace, to recognize it in life, with all the noise and chatter surrounding us in the world today. I bring this up because this is the feast day of St Hilarion, a man who went into the desert in the 4th century after being converted to the Way of Jesus after studying in the ancient center of scholarship in Alexandria, Egypt. Taking only a humble set of clothing with him in the desert, he wove baskets and sold them to make a living. The cell where he lived in the desert later became a monastery by some of his followers. He was made famous in the writings of St Jerome. The example of St Hilarion and the other desert father paved the way for monasticism in the coming centuries, which would have a great affect on the Church and on civilization. I am currently reading a book by Cardinal Robert Sarah or Guinea, West Africa entitled The Power of Silence. I thought of St Hilarion and the monastic movement when I read this quote. Cardinal Sarah writes: “Monastic life, the life of men of solitude and silence, is an ascent toward the heights, not a rest on the heights. Monks climb higher every day because God is ceaselessly greater. On this earth, we will never be able to reach God. But nothing can accompany our earthly journey toward God better than solitude and silence.”
As we commemorate St Hilarion today, may we open our minds and our hearts to God’s grace, to God’s silence, to God’s word.
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