"Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak; and as many as touched it were healed." // Mark 6:56
When I went to my first Blessed is She retreat, I didn't know what to expect. It had been years since I had gone on a retreat, and to be honest, the experiences were mostly a mixed bag. So I went to the retreat with little expectation of how the Lord might speak to me there.
The first evening I was there, Beth Davis (love you, Beth!) shared a beautiful testimony of the Lord meeting her in the middle of a ring (think of a boxing ring)—meeting her in the very center of some difficult experiences she was going through. The language she used about how the Lord took steps to be closer to her in that trying time and in that experience—it made me want Him to do the same for me. It actually made me question why I felt like He hadn't done that when I had been so clearly struggling.
So I took that to prayer that first night, and I asked Him to show me the same thing. "Meet me in the middle. Come to me." I wanted to see Him make that movement towards me because I felt like I had been metaphorically taking those steps towards Him for a while.
The next night we had Adoration, and that's where this prayer was answered. That's where He took the steps to meet me. That's where the priest carried the monstrance right up to me in my pew, hovering there for a moment, letting me pray right in front of Jesus, giving me that experience I asked for: Jesus meeting me.
I remember glancing at how other women experienced this moment too, and seeing some reach out to touch the humeral veil that the priest uses to hold the monstrance. They were who I thought of today while reading the Gospel of the healings at Gennesaret. Let's reach out to Him, as they did, seeking whatever healing we need today.
He took the steps to meet me. // Annie DeddensClick to tweet
Annie Deddens is a writer and producer. She runs a prayer ministry with her husband, called Pray More Novenas. She has a heart for the sick & suffering, and she writes about living with greater faith (hope & love, too) in this imperfect world as a Catholic wife on her blog, Catholic Wife, Catholic Life. Find out more about her here.
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