My New Friend Luke

Very few times in my life have I heard God's voice clearly and distinctly telling me what to do or where to go. At the moment, I can actually only remember one such time. [If you're curious, I was on a retreat and in the middle of spending an hour of prayer in Adoration. I was trying to stay focused on Jesus and keep my eyes on the Eucharist but, as always, I was having trouble. I complained in my prayer, "God I can't keep my eyes on you! I can't just watch you for an entire hour!" And I clearly and plainly 'heard' him reply, "If I were a television you would keep your eyes on me for an hour." Point taken.] But usually God's voice comes to me through the words of my friends, a passage in scripture, or the quiet, gentle nudgings of everyday life. That is how I came to know my new friend Luke.

1. It seems that the during the last few weeks the majority of readings from the gospel at daily Mass have been from the Gospel of Luke, or at least during the daily Masses that I've managed to get myself to. I've found myself smiling when I look up a bible passage for a blog posting and discover that it's from Luke. Also, for an extended retreat that I'm participating in at my church, I was instructed to read an account of Philip in the Acts of the Apostles. I read the account and an explanation in my Navarre Bible. Luke is the author of Acts, so I ended up reading a lot about Luke when I was supposed to be reading about Philip.

2. Ted and I have been talking about baby names. That's nothing new-we've been talking about baby names since we met. We decided upon a boy name and a girl name within the first few months of dating. We've moved on to discussing names we like for our third child, fourth child, fifth child, etc. Maybe this isn't healthy, seeing as how there are no foreseeable babies in our future, but we can't help it. And it's fun. A few weeks ago I mentioned the name Luke. Ted liked it-so did I. It has stuck with me longer than most names.

3. The combination of the two seemingly insignificant events left me with Luke on the brain. Last night, during my hour of prayer for the extended retreat, I stuck an extra book mark into my bible to get it out of my way. At the end of the hour, I remembered the book mark and decided to check to see where it ended up, always hoping to come across a passage that really speaks to me. Where did I find it? You guessed it. Luke. And not just anywhere in Luke, but the very first page. I'm getting the hint that God wants me to get to know this saint and his gospel.

Knowing that I should get to know Luke isn't enough for me though. I immediately started analyzing the situation to determine WHY I needed to get to know Luke. My first thought was: we're pregnant, it's a boy, and we're going to name him Luke. That one didn't last long because we already have a boy name and it isn't Luke. (Twin boys perhaps...."Beggars can't be choosers," Ted said.)

I then remembered that Luke is the patron saint of doctors. We've been blessed with a wonderful (even saintly) doctor and we probably don't pray for him as often as we should. God sent me Luke to remind me to pray for our doctor. Alright, we'll add him to our nightly litany!

But, as with so many other things in my life, it took my sweet husband to bring it all to light. On the way home from Mass yesterday we were discussing the gospel (which was, of course, from Luke!) and I told him about my increasingly strong devotion to Luke and the book mark in the bible incident. "Isn't Luke the gospel that tells the most about Mary?" he asked. Of course!! How could I have forgotten? Most of the stories from Mary's life are told in the Gospel of Luke. I had a flash back to a youth group meeting from my sophomore year of high school during which Fr. Mark said, "If you want to know Mary, start with Luke." That is my goal isn't it? To know Mary and become more like her. Thanks Ted! I think I'll start with Luke!

And it doesn't end there. Last night I started from the beginning and discovered that Luke's gospel is the only one of the four that relates the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth! Elizabeth is the mother of John the Baptist and Mary's sister. She was barren for many, many years until God blessed her with John. If it wasn't for Luke, we would never have known about the miraculous conception of John the Baptist or have Elizabeth as an example of woman struggling with infertility. Just another reason why I love Luke!

I'm so excited to begin Lent with the Gospel of Luke. I also hope with all my heart that God will someday bless us with a (second) son who we can name after this wonderful saint. But even if this never happens, I'm grateful that God has shown me a clear way to get to know my Blessed Mother more fully and given me a new friend in the process!

St. Luke, pray for us!