Reflect ... and Rejoice!

I'd like to share with you our pastor's beautiful homily on the feast of Mary, Mother of God, on New Year's Day.

He shared with us many nuggets of wisdom but I'll  mine only one because this struck so close to home. This was in the context of Luke's Gospel which said, "And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart." Our pastor advised that, this new year, we should reflect more and ruminate less. Webster's dictionary states that the synonym of ruminate is reflect. That's true. They are very similar and both are done in the silence of the mind. So what's the difference?

Our pastor contrasted the two. He said that ruminate is when we go back to the events of the day and replay them in our minds over and over again. We think about what we should have said or done differently. We imagine how the other person would have replied or reacted if we had said or done something else. In short, we adjudicate the things that happened again and again. We wake up the next morning and we are tired because our minds were so busy unnecessarily replaying and restaging the events of the day.

Reflect is when we recall the events of the day and try to see how God's hand moved in each moment. Like Mary, we reflect in our hearts and try to listen to what the Holy Spirit whispered to us throughout the day that we might have missed. After we reflect, our souls soar in praise and thanksgiving. So we wake up the next morning with joy in our hearts and peace in our souls, eagerly looking forward to a new day spent with the Lord.

Indeed, reflect ... and rejoice!