Caressed by mercy

Starting today, and for the next five months, the clock in my car will be one hour and seven minutes fast (instead of the usual seven minutes), because leaving it is less bother than trying to readjust it. Yes, this was the weekend when we adjusted our clocks back by one hour, from British Summer Time to GMT. And this is the day when our winter darkness begins to descend: although this morning the sun, determined to remind us of its constant presence, rose into a brilliant, cloudless blue sky, gilding every already gold or russet leaf, making sure we knew that, despite the early dusk, it is still autumn - not yet winter for a while!

The sky had filled with clouds by the time I came home from Mass, where a line from the first reading had taken me back two months, to a moment in my retreat. The prayer of the humble pierces the clouds... (Sirach 35: 21), and I was back in my cabin at Llannerchwen one intermittently rainy morning, watching heavy clouds drifting across the Beacons, grazing and at times enveloping their peaks. Clouds sometimes trailing feather-light wisps, caressing the ridges below; heaven meeting earth in pearl-tinted puffs. And these words slowly rising up within me... Who knows if he will not turn again... will not leave a blessing as he passes...? (Joel 2:14), and a remembrance that just a line before, Joel speaks of a God who is all tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in graciousness and abounding in love. 

Caressed by mercy, I thought, suddenly remembering that the British Sign Language sign for 'mercy' is a caress. And then these lines from a hymn by Marty Haugen:

Return to God with all your heart, the source of grace and mercy
Come seek the tender faithfulness of God...

And today: the prayers of the humble pierce the clouds... not because the pray-er has worked hard, or their prayers are inherently better, but because our God is a God who is all tenderness and compassion, rich in graciousness and grace, and abounding in love... A God who caresses with mercy, and leaves a blessing wherever he passes. May we all know this tender, all-loving God's presence, especially within the clouds.