Allowing for moments of contemplation each day can build a relationship and open oneself up to not just experiencing God, but also providing a mission.

Although it sounds easy, Lucie Leduc, the executive director for the Star of the North Retreat Centre in St. Albert, notes that it isn’t.

Don’t confuse contemplation with prayer, however. Contemplation is wordless — internally and externally. “I like to say that contemplation is the very act of Faith. It’s the way we come to Faith that leads us into the temple and the centre of our being,” she said during her Sophia Talk. “Contemplation is about recovering our true self image.”

People who contemplate won’t experience God every time, but “It’s the Faith and commitment of sitting down. Of being with God,” she said. “The Faith and commitment of a… long-term relationship.”

Contemplation can create moments in life where one realizes they have experienced God in daily encounters. 

She told the story of two unexpected visitors at Star of the North shortly after she started working there. These two men were on their way to Fort McMurray to look for employment, but their vehicle had broken down. Leduc said she couldn’t do much to assist, but did financially help them to ensure they could arrive in Fort Mac.

“I was seeing in them God. I was seeing in them the face of Christ in my midst. Even though they looked desperate and disheveled,” she said. “There was room for compassion in just being with them.”

Although she didn’t expect to be repaid, she was the following month.

“The point is we transcend the boundaries that we have or that we carry…. We drop the judgements," she explained. "We learn to meet people as they are. That’s the encounter with the true self — our true self and the other’s true self."