Looking for “burning bush” moments in daily life is an idea for the Lenten spiritual practice of Cathleen Falsani, writing in the Chicago Sun-Times. Her priest sparked this idea in a sermon on Lent.
“How can you mark this time before Easter as a special time of year, a time to examine your life and what controls it,” Mother Katie asked. “What will help you proclaim to others that you have . . . are listening to the world around you?”
She also talked about the fleeting, glorious moments the Celts called “thin moments,” in which the veil between this world and the spirit world seems almost transparent. These are the times when God reaches God’s hands into the world and tries to get our attention.
“We are called to listen,” Mother Katie said, “to look at the world as it is, not just as we would have it to be.”
An example of her discovery:
As soon as I decided to add flaming-bush-spotting as my Lenten spiritual practice, I spotted one. In an ad in the church bulletin for a book club, I noticed the name Dianne Hunter. My husband and I are relatively new to this parish. We know a few people, but there are many we have yet to meet. While I didn’t have a face for it, this name was familiar.
Dianne Hunter is public relations director for Mount Sinai Hospital in Chicago. More important, she is the woman who came forward in November 2007, when I first wrote about Vasco Sylvester, the little boy from Malawi who needs life-saving heart surgery, to offer her help. In short order, she organized doctors from three Chicago hospitals to donate their time and expertise to treat Vasco for free.
Cathleen Falsani keeps the blog The Dude Abides and author of several books, including Sin Boldly: A Field Guide for Grace.