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A 1:50 a.m. Call from God
This morning I woke up at 1:50 a.m. ready to go. I’m not sure why as I am a solid 8 hour sleeper. I tried going back to sleep but no luck. So I laid there and thought about how the young boy Samuel was awakened several times during the night thinking it was the priest Eli. Each time he went to Eli who said, “I didn’t call you. Go back to bed.” Finally it occurred to Eli that God might be calling Samuel and sure enough God was. Eli told Samuel to respond next time saying, “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening” (1 Samuel 3). Samuel did as Eli instructed and God spoke to him. I’ve often prayed these words, “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening” when I wake up during the night wondering if my sleeplessness is a call to prayer. Sometimes it is. Sometimes a person or a group of people or a particular situation comes to mind. I pray for them until I am no longer awake, trusting the angels to finish my prayers (I don’t remember where I heard that about the angels, but I think it is a lovely idea).
You just never know when or where God might call upon you. This morning I don’t know if it was God or the cup of coffee I had late in the day. Either way, it was nice to spend a few quiet moments with God, when everything around me was dark and still and silent. Praying in this way helps me to develop the habit of being open and responding, even if it is at 1:50 a.m.
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A friend of mine told me he’d entrusted the angels so often to finish his prayers, that he imagines that when he dies, they will come to him, hands on hips, to ask him to explain…
Hi Sister Julie,
My husband Chuck and I enjoyed listening to your interview with Scott Simon on NPR. Your blog is very well written and interesting. Your warmth and thoughtfulness come through clearly.
I never heard that the angels finish our prayers when we doze off in the middle, but I agree, it is a lovely thought!
Many thanks for all you are doing to share your faith in a calm, witty, down to earth and compassionate way.
- Lee
My mother and grandmother taught my siblings and I to pray when we woke in the night. I remember having nightmares as a very little girl. My mom would give me a “magic kiss” and then send me to bed with instructions to say Hail Marys until I fell asleep. As my siblings and I grew older, we all started sleeping with a rosary on or near our bed. We too were told the angels would finish our prayers. It’s a wonderful legacy to my mom and to my gram. Now, when I wake up in the middle of the night and start to pray, I also think of these mothers on earth, as well as to the Blessed Mother. I really should thank my mom for that gift.
I love this post. From now on, I’ll try to be a little grateful for those sleepless minutes.
I wake up often during the night.I am in the habit of getting my rosary and pray until I fall asleep. I never thought of angels finishing my prayer. I do pray to the angels when I drive on the Interstate. My prayer taught to me by my brother, ” May the roaring angels surround this car and protect it and me from all danger”
Hello Sister Julie
It’s lovely seeing a Nun give us an account of her live and it makes nuns seem more accessible to the wider world. It reminds me of my own experience with being taught my nuns at boarding prep school and the Head nun who was so caring you’d think we were her own children. Her devotion to the subject she taught and in being a figurehead for young ones to follow was so endearing.
One of my favorite Professors would proclaim in our 8 am class that it was Holy to be awake and communing with the Divine when others were asleep. An Islamic Mystic, forgive me for not remembering his name, once said that true friends of the Divine did not sleep through the night because their longing for the Divine would wake them up. I am not sure I buy that, on the other hand, if I am awake at o’dark thirty… I am usually praying. LOL
Elizabeth
Hi Sister! i loved this post. you made me realize the meaning of ny sleepless nights, more meaningful thsn just by being sleepless because of somebody else!