The most practical reminder for getting in to this week is to let it be simple. It is a part of our busy world to think that because nothing big and stimulating is going on, nothing is going on. That assumption leads to restlessness and an inattention to the subtle movements in our hearts.

Perhaps I need to wake each morning and pause at the side of my bed and say, “I just want to appreciate what has been given me, offered me.” Those words, or any others that come from my heart, will help me focus my day around attention and gratitude. Then the subtler things that were perhaps overlooked or underappreciated can rise to the surface. Remembering keeps graces alive. Throughout this week, look back at important moments in my ordinary life these past weeks. Review the graces that were there in a brief background experience. If there was some experience, feeling, thought, prayer, that especially stirred my heart, I can return there and enjoy it at a deeper level in a new context this week.

Being re-collected is really just a simple process of collecting what is really valuable and important, over and over. Our lives are being filled with grace these weeks as we are drawn, by love, into the life of the one who invites us to join him in his own mission.