seek and surrender

Today's homily was mostly about St. Martin de Tours, who's feast day it is today.  My first thought was "didn't we just have him last week?"  But after the early morning fog cleared away, I realized that it was St. Martin de Porres that we had last week (or the week before).   I listened intently to the homily.... there were a few tie-ins to today's scriptures about wisdom and living with the end (heaven) in mind.  But really caught my attention were two words in the last sentence about St. Martin seeking God, but also being available to and surrendering to God.  My friend who was sitting next to me didn't hear them at all.  The working of the Holy Spirit that a church full of people can listen to the same homily, but different things touch different people in different ways.

I have been doing a bit of thinking about seeking and surrendering since my last confession.  It is not enough to just show up waving a white flag of surrender.  (And how difficult it is to truly surrender!)  As we surrender, we must also continue to seek God through prayer, through scripture, through reading.  The two are not mutually exclusive.  I love how God connects the dots to make a picture!