The holy women in my life are good at noticing things:

Our five-year- old Maeve: “Daddy, Tess wiped her yogurt cereal on your pants.”
Our two-year- old Tess: “Daddy, your pants dirty.”
My wife Megan: “That’s okay. Daddy doesn’t mind, really.”

Noticing things is at the heart of Ignatian Spirituality. St. Ignatius tells us at the beginning of the Spiritual Exercises to savor our experiences for quality of meaning that only the heart can know.

I wonder what quality of character drew Paul to recognize that being in Lydia’s and the other women’s presence would be a “place of prayer.” We know that she “listened” and “paid attention” and that she generously opened her home.  Perhaps our own prayer and our evangelization of the Gospel today can be to similarly “pay attention” to whom in our life offers us this gift and to whom we might offer it in return.

—Jordan Skarr works in the Office of Pastoral Ministries for the Midwest Jesuits.