The Practice of Repetition

by Chris Koellhoffer, IHM   March 30, 2025

Ice on the windshield again this morning. The winter that seemed unending in Northeast PA still manages to have a bit of a grip on my part of the Universe. I could be grumbling about the inconvenience of defrosting and scraping (a tendency I’ve indulged in many times this season). But on my better days, I gaze at the natural world around me and wonder what hidden messages I’m meant to uncover.

What could Earth be saying through its friends: ice, snow, frigid mornings? The last gasp of winter reminds us to explore what we also might be clinging to and reluctant to let go of. What we’re missing if we focus only on the elements that irk us, like the necessary extra minutes required to clear a frozen windshield or to put on thick layers of warm clothing. What if we approached these experiences more as an act of learning, of care and well-being, and less of an annoyance?

As resilient spring dares to make a comeback these days, I’m committed to paying close attention. After returning home from serving as a guest director for a directed retreat in the early days of spring, I was stunned to notice and realize that, since the beginning of time, the natural world has been practicing repetition, something that is often also a practice in directed retreats. In Ignatian spirituality  “repetition is the return to a previous period of prayer for the purpose of allowing the movements of the Holy One to deepen within the heart.” So we might go back to a Scripture passage, a movement of the heart, or a significant experience, we might listen and look again, see what more might be unfolding, and mine the deeper meaning of things.

How, I wondered, have I never before noticed that the
kin-dom of plants and all things green and growing has been practicing this repetition for far longer than we can imagine? How, pushing up through the layers of dead leaves piled on them as winter frost protection, are clusters of mini jonquils, bunches of eager crocus, tribes of brave daffodils. How they seem to joyfully trumpet we are here, we are here, we are here, over and over again. Returning is what they know. Repeating is what they do, every spring. Same faces, but a new season.

What stories they must gather from their time in the Underland! Oh, if only we cultivated eyes to see and hearts to notice, to pay attention, to mine for the deeper meaning of this flowering, repeating, ever new and ever fresh revelation.

Takeaway
Sit in stillness with the Holy One.
If you live in the Northern hemisphere, you may wish to walk outside, bask in the generous sunlight, and notice the new life around you that is returning and repeating.
If you live in the Southern hemisphere and are witnessing the coming of autumn, you may want to spend this time looking for life that is surrendering to the repetition of sleep and burrowing deep.
What might you intuit from what your eyes and heart notice?
Share this with the Holy One and ask for a repetition of whatever grace you most desire.

Featured Images: Ales Maze, Unsplash; Chris Koellhoffer

NOTE:
Thank you for your prayer for all who were part of the Assembly of the Sisters of Christian Charity in Mendham, NJ last weekend.

Now may I ask you to hold in your prayer:

April 7-8:
Travel and a Lenten day of reflection that I’ll be leading at the IHM Conference Center in Bryn Mawr, PA. Thank you.

Another thank you:
To “Gally” Galligan III, a follower of Mining the Now, who wrote after I published “The Practice of Rafting” and I suggested listening to Ben E. Cook’s version of “Stand by Me”:
Here’s what Gally offered:
“After reading today’s from you, I could not help but remember a version of this great song. You may be familiar. It is sung by various street musicians and others from all over the world and there is a video of it as well. It is inspiring…You may want to check it out. “Stand by Me: Playing for Change”
Thanks for this wonderful addition, Gally, and here’s the YouTube link for anyone who would like a listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us-TVg40ExM

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