Openness to the Spirit: Paying Attention

In today’s first reading, Acts 16: 11-15, Paul and Silas travel to several cities: Troas, Samothrace, Neapolis and Philippi. Outside the city of Philippi, they sat and talked with the women, one of whom was Lydia, described as a business woman, “ a worshiper of God, who listened.”  Paul states that “the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what [he] was saying [about Jesus].   She and her household were baptized by Paul and Silas. Following her baptism, she says to Paul: “If you consider me a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my home."  “…[S]he prevailed on us, “ Paul states.

Each of the persons in this account are listeners, followers, open to the Spirit. Paul and Silas follow the Spirit’s lead to visit these cities,  to take time to talk to the women gathered outside the city of Philippi,  to baptize Lydia and her household and to accept her invitation to stay at her home. Paul and Silas also recognize the Spirit at work in Lydia. That kind of awareness  takes a lot of openness, first of all,  on any one's part, and second of all, on the part of these two men in a culture that  paid no attention to women, discounted them—in fact excluded them completely.  Lydia, on her part, allows the Spirit to touch her heart deeply. First of all, she is free of prejudice against Paul, who had been known as a staunch Jew who persecuted Christians and here he was preaching about Jesus. Second of all, she was open to hearing about Jesus whom  her own people had put to death.  And third o fall, she is open to the voice of the Spirit directing her to open her home to these missionaries.

How open will I be this day to the Spirit’s invitations,  whatever they might be?  Will I pay attention? Will I be generous? Will I open up to a world to which those around me are closed? Will I be true to who I am and to who I am being invited to become?