Jesus said to the apostles, “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” In the gospel for the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time, the apostles have returned from their missionary journey. Ministry saps a lot of physical and spiritual energy from a person. Jesus tells them to rest in God. His advise applies to all of us.
Our lives are filled to the brim with activities and distractions. Some of our busyness is by obligation and some is of our own making. In the movie, “Only You,” an Italian business man observes to an American the difference approaches of Italians and Americans to work. He says to her, “ We Italians work so that we can live. You Americans live so that you can work.” Jesus is telling us the same thing. We need to take a rest from all the stuff we cram into every minute of our waking hours. We need to set aside time everyday to rest in God.
This statement of Jesus impacts our prayer life, too. Do set aside time to pray to God? How much of that time is spent “yammering” at God? As ordained clergy, Fr Kevin and I are obligated to pray the Liturgy of the Hours a minimum of 3 times a day. The Liturgy of the Hours is wonderful prayer, but it is extremely wordy, albeit those words are lovely. There are times when praying the Liturgy of the Hours is more work than resting in God. To rest in God means to rest from all the words; to shut up and just listen to presence of God within us. This very ancient way of praying goes back to the prayer life of Jesus and the early Church. It is has been called many things; meditation, contemplation, and, more recently, centering prayer.
There are many books and tapes about the practice of centering prayer. It requires as little as 5 minutes a day to 20 minutes a day. It is quieting oneself, focusing on a sacred name, like “Jesus”, and resting in that sacred name. When thoughts flit into the mind, one just refocuses and continues resting on the sacred name and listening to God speak to us in the silence. Let us take to heart Jesus’ words today and come away a while to rest in God.
