The Holy Spirit can break into our lives in the most unexpected of ways. A friend related to me how sometimes her mind wanders during meditation, and in this wandering, she begins to think about her chores and her to do list. Then, something strange happens. In the midst of her daily activities, suddenly she has moments of insight and spiritual inspiration.

We have to be careful and not let our expectations close us off to the spontaneity of the Spirit. We like for our lives to unfold in predictable ways. We think to ourselves, “This is my time for prayer. In this period is when I make time for God to speak to me.” In a certain sense, it is a good thing to make the time for meditation, but we should not limit when God may or may not speak to us.

The formal times of meditation are there to help us gain a sensitivity to the continuous and on-going reality that is prayer. We are called to pray always (1 Thessalonians 5:17), but praying continuously does not mean constantly saying formal prayers or even constantly thinking about God. Rather, it indicates a kind of intuitive awareness of the objective reality in which we live as Christians. Through Baptism, we participate in the on-going exchange of the Trinity, and this participation is the foundation of prayer.

Instead of trying to force our prayer into ideals that may or may not be helpful, we must constantly cultivate the attitude that prayer can and will break through at any moment. We must allow ourselves to be open to amazement and the unpredictable ways in which the Spirit prompts in us inspirations and consolations. As we allow ourselves to be amazed, we will live in greater freedom and boundless desire.

Today, let us commit ourselves to being amazed, but not amazed in the sense of constantly seeking novelty or intrigue. Rather amazed in the possibility proposed by faith, the possibility that the Holy Spirit can and will break into our lives even in the most mundane of circumstances.