
Guided by God’s Spirit
Lent – Preparing for Holy Week
How did Mary of Bethany know? What prompted her to pour out rich perfume on Jesus’ feet? God’s spirit was strong in Mary, prompting her to act. She was guided by this spirit. Did she know that the man she loved was soon to die? Or was it just a sign of her excessive love to pour out so extravagantly this fine oil on the Lord’s feet? Does it matter? All that matters is that she acted in accordance with the spirit’s urges and that made all the difference.
That little voice that tells you, turn here, go this direction not another, stop for a moment at this home, or don’t get on that plane, or train or bus. We all have these small urges, inner directions that call us in a certain direction. We ignore them at our own peril. Sometimes something intervenes in our life. We choose a different route than we had planned only to discover we missed being part of a deadly car pile up, or we ignore our inner voice telling us not to go a certain way and find ourselves in an accident. We chose a different career path and discover blessings we never expected, that somehow we have been led in the direction we were meant to go, despite ourselves.
We all have that inner voice, inner guide, but some of us are better at listening to it than others; some don’t know it at all because of lack of practice or years of ignoring it.
We need to be more like Mary in listening to the gentle urges of God’s spirit within us. You never know when a small act of love can make a world of difference.
Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil made from genuine aromatic nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair; the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. John 12:3
This post is part of a series of reflections on the Church year. click here to follow blog
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