Sometimes I’ll hear a phrase that will take hold of me and settle in to my heart and head. These sacred words are most often disarmingly simple ideas that nonetheless captivate me, sometimes for weeks, or even for years. Two such phrases that immediately spring to mind, in fact, have been with me for decades.

Before an immersion trip when I was in college, our group was peppering a favorite professor of mine with questions about how we could best live out the experience. His two-word response calmed me then, and challenges me now, every day. He said, “Just love.” And on a retreat a little later in college, a friend was describing her strategy for successfully completing a pilgrimage during a difficult time in her life. “Keep walking,” she said.

I’ve been blessed to have another phrase with me as a spiritual companion in recent days. I heard a terrific homily on the second Sunday of Advent. The homilist encouraged us to really think about what we were preparing for during this graced period. Is our preparation all focused on December 25th, all eyes trained on a baby in a manger? That’s good as far as it goes, but he was suggesting that perhaps that doesn’t go far enough. Because there’s another preparation, wrapped up in swaddling clothes with that infant, that’s taking place.

And it’s this other, bigger, deeper preparation that’s had visions dancing in my head. What are we preparing for? To meet God face-to-face. The most essential meeting of all. One that, quite literally, we are born to do. One that, quite literally, we are dying to do. Meet God face-to-face.

But how often in my daily life do I miss the meeting? How often do I forget that what I’m preparing for–meeting God face-to-face–is available to me constantly, with every face? And that’s where the face of Ignatius of Loyola gains sharper focus for me. In these early steps on my journey with Ignatius, one of the great gifts I’ve been opening is the Examen, a careful, prayerful review of daily life. The Examen has worked on two levels for me: allowing me to recognize missed meetings, missed opportunities to connect with God, and highlighting the meetings that did happen, ones that I might have overlooked without this reflection.

Meeting God face-to-face. I know this spiritual concept will be with me for far more than the next few days. What we’re preparing for, what we are about, is meeting God face-to-face. While that responsibility and privilege seems daunting, the Christmas event helps me to remember that the encounter with God can–and does–happen every day. It happens whenever we show up for a “meeting” with another person, mindful of God who is present in every face.

Photo: “Rencontre à Naxos (Encounter at Naxos)“by Nomad Photography from Flickr (Used under Creative Commons license)

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