A special post from Emilie Griffin - Simeon's moment

Today we reflect on Simeon’s moment with the Christ-child…and the ways in our own lives we can become open to grace. For those who celebrate December 25th as the holiday of the year, the days that follow can become an unexpected blessing. They are slower, less structured days, days of surprise visits and unexpected phone calls, moments of interruption, even of tolerating fools gladly. Who knows what the Lord has in store for us when the small knock comes, when the doorbell rings? Our task is to spot the blessing, no matter how disguised. Christ plays in ten thousand places… (As the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins famously wrote.) Yes, the Christ-child plays. But will we, like Simeon, have the wisdom to know him whenever and wherever he comes?