After sending the 4th & 5th graders on their way back to school post-Advent retreat, I started setting up for the 7th & 8th grade one that would follow in about 20 minutes. There wasn't a lot to set up, but I also didn't have time to go grab my lunch, bring it back, and scarf it down.
As good fortune would have it, our director of Religious Ed came down to the basement and invited me to have lunch with her and the priests upstairs - they had ordered Panera as a simple "thank you" for the priests who had come to assist with hearing confessions. Well, the food would have been lovely in and of itself, but I must say I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation (albeit a quick one) with the priests. It was nice to just take a few moments to sit and be present with other people during the midst of a somewhat busy day. They spoke a little of their parishes and where they came from, and I talked a little bit about my experience with the ACE program and my time in Chicago.
Conversations that involve true listening and presence are the best ones. Too often we are swept away by the necessary things we feel the need to complete each day that we mostly tune out any interactions that would be on a deeper level because we just don't "have the time." But we need to make time because it's exactly those kinds of conversations that allow us to get better glimpses of human nature and to better understand the presence of God in one another.
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