Often we are too busy watching for "signs of the times" to see the signs in our own lives.

But signs there are, and Pope Benedict XVI says that God "gives all kinds" of them as He "speaks quietly."

The signs we seek are in the quiet of life.

When we have suffered well, when finally we have gone through a trial without criticism, or complaint, when we persist, God often floods us with grace, as in the example of the Virgin.

This is a "sign." If we remain alert, said the Pope, "then slowly they piece together a consistent whole, and we begin to feel how God is guiding us."

But we must take the time to see them. Figuratively, they are in the whisper of the wind. They are in the voices of relatives, of friends. They are in what we read and hear. They are there when we take the time to notice them, instead of letting the rush of a day sweep us into a froth, into a torrent, as seems now so common.

With God's grace, we can slow down our lives and stretch the hours and see what He has to say to us.

Can God slow down time? He created it. If you need to slow down, maybe He is waiting for you to make the first move.

When we initiate the cause of slowing down our adrenalin, our hastiness, our speed, our breath-taking pattern of life, God then steps in and removes the word "hectic" from our lives.

When we are in His flow, things are accomplished in a way that is not so mechanically planned but that works out better -- far better, with more done with higher quality in a shorter period.

Go with the flow -- His Flow -- and you will see His Hand all around you. There is the sun that rises and plays on the horizon in a way that is unusual, with a "you had to be there quality" that one attempts to photograph (as at left) and in which, when one takes the time, one may even see images. It illuminates the horizon.

God is written in every aspect of nature but not according to our idea of geometry, to our idea of lines. He is not "picture perfect." He is in the dance of a butterfly and the swoon of a bird and in the sense of peace when we forget the clock, when we stroll amid what He created.

Even if it is snow: Imagine how much "time" it would take to appreciate the beauty of each unique intricacy in snowflakes!

At times, we stumble over it. "This past Sunday I kicked snow and ice off of my truck before Mass," wrote Jason Alexander Smith from Goffstown, New Hampshire a week or so back. "When I came home it was in the driveway and I took a picture because it looks like a dove. I have been seeing a lot of doves lately and just finished a 'Life in the Spirit' seminar and it reminds me of the Holy Spirit! "

Now it is springtime when we should take time to watch life unfold, to smell the roses. Ask God to slow things down. Ask God to help you measure your time. Ask the Lord to guide everything you need to do and what you don't need to do.

We see what happens when we take the time. A leaf unfurls from a "dead" branch. A flower comes from a humble seed. Slowly, but with power, the sun rises.

Don't have the time to pray?

Try this little "miraculous" prayer. It takes just eight seconds:

"Lord, I love you and I need you, come into my heart, and bless me, my family, my home, my finances, and all of my friends, in Jesus' Name. Amen."

That takes care of just about all we need in the course of a day's time.

03/27/07

[resources: The God of Miracles]

[see also: The real key to health and How evil enters your home]