But now I see

Sunrise on the Sea of Galilee.
Jesus spat on the ground and made clay with his saliva and smeared it on the eyes of a man born blind.  He then told the man to go and wash in the pool called "Sent."  The man sees.  His sight was restored in two stages.  His faith in Jesus comes in several stages through a series of questions and answers with a variety of people.
As I meditated this morning on this passage from John's Gospel (9:1-41,) I started thinking about how gradually my faith relationship with God has grown.  I thought of my ancient ancestors who may have brought their Druid beliefs into their Christian faith that they were hearing about from St. Patrick. 
I remembered my childhood love for going to church and how that matured enough for me to go to the seminary at age 14.  I felt gratitude for how the seminary experience drew me into a deeper and deeper relationship with God to the point where, after twelve years, I no longer saw the rule and the bell as the voice of God.
After I became a priest I remembered how my faith grew as my prayer life changed from the time-consuming recitation of the daily breviary to the stimulation of meditation on the Scriptures to the profound experience of centering prayer and my still growing awareness of what it means to have Love Who loves us living in me and carrying me to others.  So much to be grateful for.
I decided to write a longer blog today since I'm not writing a homily this weekend.  I also wanted to share with you how meditation on the Scriptures works.  I took about 20 minutes, read the passage again, and then talked to God about it.  Try it.  Most of us have more time than usual that we could give to this.