Reverential Fear

Sister Wendy Beckett

"I think you have much “compassion and understanding” but it is limited at present by the natural. You tend to expect others to see as you see, and to feel impatient when they don’t. And if people sense that one feels dismissive, their hackles rise and, in fear, they can’t listen. 

"We must pray for reverence, that deep acceptance of the deference of others that lets us show them what we are saying. Once people really ‘hear’, they nearly always respond. But nothing to be sad about. Having difficulties is a way of growing. It opens us up to God. Remember, happiness is a willed thing..."

Spiritual Letters

(Sister Wendy writes: “We must pray for reverence…” which reminded me of a homily I heard this week about the lack of reverence in American culture. The priest read a piece of Scripture in which the apostles, after having heard Jesus say that he must die, had questions but, as the bible says, “they were afraid to ask”. What does that mean? This, the priest said, was an example of “reverential fear”. Reverential fear is what is meant by “fear of God”. To feel or express reverence in the face of God and all that is God-ly, is wisdom, and the opposite of cowardice. To refuse all reverence is self-esteem gone mad.)