At the end of June, I went on a retreat – something that we as deacons are required to do. It is to take the opportunity to disconnect from our everyday lives and to reconnect with our God. So I spent five days and four nights in a private hermitage outside of Lacrosse, Wisconsin owned by the Franciscan Sisters. The hermitage was located on Solitary Ridge, and it was incredibly peaceful. It was a silent retreat for me, and I couldn’t wait to rediscover the calmness of being with the Lord.
When I arrived, I pulled out my bible to read the daily readings. The gospel was Matthew 11: 25-30:
At that time Jesus said in reply, “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him. “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”
I was so excited to hear this message of resting in the Lord, as I would be doing this for the next few days. So I prayed, did some lectio divinia, meditated, immersed myself in contemplative prayer, and I read some spiritual books. And here’s the funny thing: everything that I read contained those same verses from Matthew. Even the bench that was located outside of the town’s Catholic Church had that verse engraved on it. I love it when the Spirit works that way!
And that’s where the realization kicked in. All of us need time to rest with the Lord: to simply be still and to be with God. Each one of us needs to break-away and take a retreat of some sort – even if it’s only a couple of hours at a local park. It’s taking the opportunity to step away from our daily grind, our daily mayhem, our daily stresses, and to simply praise God for everything that he has given us – to praise him in song, in prayer, and in silence.
Let us open ourselves up in order to let God inside. Let us realize that when we rest in the Lord, our burdens become lighter and our stresses become weaker.
It’s time to rest in the Lord. He is waiting with open arms.
