Daily Reflections ...

I recently finished reading the book The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas. You may be familiar with the movie that came out in the early 2000s. There is an interesting difference between the movie and the book; in the movie, the main male and female characters live happily ever after together. In the book, the woman actually ends up joining a convent, dedicating her life to fasting and prayer.

This was common in centuries past. Widows would often join a religious order of some kind and dedicate themselves to service and prayer. The prophetess Anna in today’s reading is similar. She is a widow and has dedicated herself to serving God night and day with fasting and prayer.

When we are young, we tend to follow the whims of our passions and desires. In our middle age years, we tend to be bound to the commitments we have made. But the elderly, like Anna, in their years of experience, have filtered out the unimportant aspects of life and discovered the important ones. This wisdom has brought to the surface what is truly meaningful in life. The fact that nowadays the elderly are often the only ones we see at Sunday Mass or keeping our local parish alive, ought to be a witness to all of us as to what is important in this life.

There are two ways of gaining wisdom. The first is through years and years of experience. The second is by trusting those who have years and years of experience.

Let’s trust Anna today, who bore witness to the importance of prayer, faith, fasting and love of God.

by David Kruse