MEDITATION:
Written by Anthony de Mello (1931-1987), an Indian Jesuit priest, psychotherapist, spiritual teacher, writer, and speaker. This is an excerpt from his book “Contact with God.”
Here, then, is another reason why apostles withdraw to make a retreat: they need to be charged with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is given to those who watch and pray and wait patiently, those who have the courage to get away from everything and come to grips with themselves and with God in solitude and silence. No wonder every one of the great prophets, indeed Jesus himself, retired to the desert for prolonged periods of silence, praying, fasting, wrestling with the forces of evil. The desert is the furnace where the apostle and the prophet are forged. The desert, not the marketplace. The marketplace is where apostles function. The desert is where they are formed and seasoned and receive their commission and their message for the world, “their” gospel.
PRAYER:
In the earliest centuries of faith, Christians in the deserts of Palestine and Africa sought a short prayer that could be easily repeated in order to acquire the habit of “prayer without ceasing.” The result was the Jesus Prayer.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
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