The business of gentle

Today is the first day in a very long week that I actually had a nice generous chunk of me time to reflect and write. Since the Feast Day of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary which fell on August 22, I felt a renewed desire to write but have had to put my intentions on the back burner for there was a need for me to put my energies into a domestic issue, thanks to COVID (no, I still haven’t gotten the coronavirus).

What really kept me sane and relatively civil was the first reading last weekend from Ecclesiasticus chapter three, verses 19-21:

My son, be gentle in carrying out your business, and you will be better loved than a lavish giver. The greater you are, the more you should behave humbly, and then you will find favour with the Lord; for great though the power of the Lord is, he accepts the homage of the humble.

Being generous, being a giver is not enough. I have to be gentle in carrying out my business, which implies humility as seen in the next sentence. This gentleness or meekness, a hallmark of our Blessed Mother, is something I have been attempting to acquire for some time now. I am never the most patient of people and my quick temper has often guided my tongue with regrettable harshness. So I have made a concerted effort to be ‘gentle’ even when I least felt like it, what with the pouring downfall in days past, both literally and figuratively. Although, I was eternally grateful for the rain for it meant one less task of having to water my plants.

I can only attribute all my triumphs to the Holy Spirit for this business of being gentle was my desire through this week. I have had the insight to know when to keep silent and what to proffer with humility in the different circumstances that have presented themselves and not go with my knee-jerk, bull-in-the-china-shop inclinations. I have been able to find joy in everything that I do and not find any task too onerous. Despite my physical aches and pains, my inability to sleep well, and my soaring kan cheong blood pressure, I have been able to keep my cool most of the time. Most of all, I have been able to recognize all the graces I have received in this last week of great challenges and be grateful.   

Truly I thank God for His mercies big and small. I have kept praying throughout, I have even asked for others to intercede for me, and I feel blessed that I have been able to use my gifts and talents in ways that have made a difference to others. May I continue to find favour with the Lord.