I just came back from a few days of retreat – what a gift! While on retreat, I prayed with a book I had picked up last year, Walking with Jesus: A Way Forward for the Church, by Pope Francis. It is simply a well compiled gathering of some of the Pope’s daily homilies, general audience teachings, and allocutions to different groups; only five sections, it is not a big book, but it is well edited and good food for thought and prayer. As with all things that Pope Francis presents, it is steeped in scripture and the life of Christ.

I purchased the book because the title intrigued me: Walking with Jesus. Sounds like a good idea! But very quickly I discovered the depth of the relationship that God has in store for us through this invitation. Early in the book I came to see this … In Abram’s first encounter with God, he was invited to walk in God’s presence (Gn 12:1). We see Abram as the father of faith and we talk about sharing in the inheritance, the promises God made with him (Lk 1:55), but the promise comes after the invitation – Come, walk with me and I will make you into a great nation …

Later, Micah says it very plainly: “And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Mic 6:8, NIV).

And these are just two examples! It is becoming clearer to me how central this invitation is – to walk with God.

Always.

Through the incarnation, Jesus came to walk with us; to show us what it is, means, and can feel like to walk with God; to give us that human experience.

Further into the book, there are the Pope’s general audience teachings on the Sacraments and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. As placed in this book, it highlights how these gifts of the Spirit in and to the Church and the people of God are means to help us to continue to walk with God and with one another.

We’ve all been inspired at one time or another by the poem “Footprints in the Sand,” and it is a beautiful image, but more than looking back and noticing that there were two sets of footprints – that God chose to walk with us, can I hear the invitation to walk with God and to choose to do so?

When I want to spend time with someone, away from work or TV or a crowd, I say “let’s take a walk.” Well, from the beginning, that is what God’s invitation to me [and to each of us] has been. It cannot always be a real “walk in the park,” but for me to intentionally choose to be in God’s presence whether I’m walking, driving, reading, sleeping … because God desires to be a part of my life, my whole life.

So I am renewed in desire to be attentive and to walk with God. I have no greater wish for you than for you to take a walk!

Sr. Kelly Connors, pm, teaches Canon Law for Saint Joseph’s College Online.