Before the touch down dance and before the Hail Mary pass, before the QB sets his feet and even before the ball is hiked, there is a moment where they all stand still. Yet, they all stand ready. Crouched, they await the execution of the call.
Champions know winning is a process. For behind the Sports Center highlights, they know a myriad of sacrifices and smaller victories that the world won’t know were necessary to make the magic happen. They live each sacrifice with active attention to what is before them while concomitantly recognizing the now is always a part of a grander plan, a bigger picture. It’s like struggling through wall sits. As much as you are waiting and hoping for the timer to go off, your legs are shaking and
your synapses are firing. The waiting is an active struggle; it is a part of the journey.
We often think of waiting in our spiritual lives as a passive endeavor. Yet, the example of Our Lady exhorts us to reconsider this limp notion of waiting as she teaches us to stand ready for the snap.
During the miracle of Cana, she interceded. At foot of the cross, she received John as her son. In the shadow of death, she believed He would rise again. As she knelt at the manger and during the Annunciation, without knowing the specifics, she waited with joyful hope though she was told her heart would be pierced by the sword. Mary’s waiting was not fraught with anxiety or worry but rather trust and wonder for “she pondered these things in her heart.” Mary prepared to live His will for the future by living the gift and grace of each day. Hers was an active waiting.
Let us wait well knowing we are building strength for what is to come by being attentive to what is asked of us now not only for the sake of the future but for the sake the gift the struggle itself can be. Mary, teach us to wait like a champion.
Verso l’alto,
Kathryn Grace
“Blessed is she who believed that what was spoken to her would be fulfilled. ”
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