16th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle B
Our Lady of Grace
July 23, 2006
Routines for Rest
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
“Knitting for the Soul”
An author named Susan Lydon offers us some very good advice in an article entitled “Knitting for the Soul.”
It happened that she had fallen off the deck of her home, breaking her arm and tearing her rotator cuff. As part of her rehab, the orthopedist recommended that she take up some activity to keep the muscles in her hands from atrophying.
And so, Susan took up knitting. She quickly came to enjoy the soothing motion of the needles and the satisfaction of seeing a scarf, or whatever it was, come into being through her hands.
Susan also found that she did some of her best thinking while she was knitting. In the time the lapsed, she came to feel calm and serene; untouched by the boredom she usually felt when she tried to be still.
What was most interesting is the Susan Lydon continued knitting long after her arm and shoulder healed. She came to see it as “soulwork.”
Our newly committed knitter found that the slow rhythm of the needles helped her make space for silence and solitude. The flow of the needles put her in touch with the rhythms of the earth and with the rhythms of her inner self.
“Come to a Deserted Place and Rest”
Now I am not recommending that we all take up knitting.
For most of us guys and probably for a lot of women too, this is not our thing. But, Susan Lydon’s experience is definitely a way of responding to that one suggestion Jesus offers his busy disciples in today’s gospel.
“Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” The truth is that we all need some space where we can be alone by ourselves.
We all need some holy, out-of-the-way place where we can escape noise and our to-do lists, if only for a few moments. We all need a routine of achieving stillness so we can be in touch with our inner selves and with the God and the voice of God we can find there.
For us, this sacred routine may be looking out our bedroom or family room window with a cup of coffee in hand at the dawning of each new day.
It may be regularly walking around our own neighborhood or on the NCR Trail and noticing the trees and birds and air we are breathing.
It may be tending our garden each day and noting the flowers or vegetables that are growing.
Everyone needs a a sacred routine that gets us to a “deserted place,” as Jesus says, to rest, to reach, to resonate with the God within us.
Summer
And this is the perfect theme for these summer months.
Summer is the time of the year when we are all able to get away a bit – if only for a few days – and see the importance of finding rest.
It’s almost as if this season of summer beckons us to do the same thing Jesus invites us to do today.
Given that, I would like to offer you what I would call “Four Summer Suggestions” that may help us respond more fully to Jesus’ invitation to us today and develop routines for rest.
Four Summer Suggestions
Number 1. Let’s remember that we are not indispensable. The business or the community organization or even the parish will survive for a bit without me whether it’s a week of vacation or 15 minutes walking the neighborhood.
Number 2. Let’s remember to leave our worries behind. If we put the computerization project at work or even the needs of an aging parent at home on the back burner for a while, whether it’s a day away or ten minutes in the garden, we will return refreshed and much better able to deal with the challenges that will continue to be there.
Number 3. Let’s remember that we all need to come away and rest for a while. Our bodies and minds need this rest; and this sensitivity to our own humanity will help us to be more sensitive to others.
Just note what a daily 5 minutes reading a bible passage and 10 minutes of reflection will do for you.
And Number 4. Let’s remember to slow down and in some way be alone every day of every season of the year.
When we take these moments to be in touch with our inner selves and with God who is within us, we will be more at peace and more of a source of peace for one another.
Conclusion
So, they are my Four Summer Suggestions.
They will help us, I believe, to respond to Jesus’ caring invitation today. “`Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.’”
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