Come Away to a Deserted Place
Last evening a retired member of our prayer group related how he and his wife recently came away to a deserted place and rested for a while. He was sharing on this week’s Gospel Mark 6: 30-34 when Jesus said those words to his returning disciples. He said those words in response to ‘people were coming and going in great numbers, and they (he and his disciples) had no time even to eat’.
It struck me that even a retired couple, living by themselves, would need to escape to a deserted place. Today our lives can become so crowded. Not necessarily like the disciples because people are coming to be healed, but because of the sheer busyness of modern life. From the moment we awake to when we drop off to sleep at night we are busy.
Just like with Jesus there is nothing intrinsically wrong with this, but we must order each day to make time to ‘withdraw to a deserted place’. In our Benedictine Spirituality Program for Home and Work, we stress this practice. Benedictine Spirituality promotes an ordered lifestyle - with breaking up the day for work, prayer, study and community (family) time.
I reflect on the lesson I received from my formator, for my diaconate journey, a senior experienced Carmelite nun, she said - ‘if it is one thing you remember from your formation, let it be: live an ordered life’. ‘Please don’t be running helter skelter, this way and that, doing this and that, order your day, that is the gift of the religious orders to the world - living an ordered life’.
Living an ordered life requires us to be present to the moment. When we are working we are paying attention to the work at hand, we strive for quality, when we pray, we pray with attention, offering up our mind and heart to God. We spend time, each day, studying our faith, and we spend quality time with our family.
Christian Meditation is a good practice to hone our skills at silence and paying attention. During meditation we try to pay attention to our mantra and our breath, closing off ourselves from all exterior and interior busyness. By adopting a regular practice, carving out time each day, within our prayer time, to silence the busyness in our lives creates that deserted place.
It is recommended we work towards meditating two twenty miniutes each day, one in the morning another at evening. I recommend you combine this with the daily praying of the morning and evening prayers and reading and studying your Bible, making that your prayer and study time. These periods become our daily withdrawal to a deserted place.
There is a profound peace that comes from intentionally creating these ‘deserted places’ in our daily lives. By embracing an ordered life, we align ourselves more closely with the rhythms of God's creation, finding balance and harmony amidst the chaos of modern existence. Through meditation, prayer, study, and quality time with family, these practices ground us and nourish our spirits.
Let us take inspiration from the wisdom of Jesus and the teachings of our religious traditions, committing ourselves to this journey of balance and presence. May we find rest and renewal in our deserted places, returning to our daily lives with a renewed sense of purpose and a deeper connection to God and one another.
Notice Board
To join the Bendictine Spirituality Program for Home and Work click on the link below.
Thank you, Deacon for this reminder to lead an ordered life. It is so important.
I’m reading your newsletter during my evening prayer time /meditation time / Desert time. Your weekday Gospel insights help me prepare for meditation. Thank you for these!
I have another session in the morning with devotional prayer, intercession prayer Bible study time. These are my bookends to a busy day.
I enjoy the Benedictine spirituality group that you created and I encourage your readers to join it as well. The more we are as a group, the more we can learn and teach each other on how to lead an ordered life.