Feb 7, 2021

Post date: Feb 09, 2021 4:52:17 AM

February 7, 2021 Homily by Fr. Karl Schray (Gospel of Mark 1: 29-39)

There was a man who was in the habit of going off by himself

into a remote forest. One day a friend, curious to know what he was up to,

followed him. When she caught up with him, she found him sitting quietly

on a log.

‘What are you doing?’ she asked her friend. “I am praying” came the reply.

‘But why come to this remote spot to pray?’

“Because I feel close to God here.”

‘But isn’t God to be found everywhere and isn’t God the same

everywhere?’

“God is but I am not.”

While it is true that we can find God and pray to God anywhere and

everywhere—in the kitchen, in the car, the backyard, the workshop—

still, it is a good idea to have a special place to which we can withdraw

from time to time, e.g. the coast, the park, the mountains, the church.

In such places God somehow seems to be nearer and more friendly.

God speaks to us in the wind, the sound of a stream, the song of a bird,

the beauty of a wildflower, in the very silence. And in such places,

we are different too. We are calmer, quieter, more relaxed and are thus

more open to what God is always offering us and in all places.

It is especially good to have a separate spot, a prayer corner,

our own sacred space, from which to exclude everything else.

A place for quiet meditation—even just to sit in your sacred space

to not only find God but find yourself.

When Ryan and Sarah moved out last year, we created a chapel

in the spare room.

Linda and I pray morning and evening prayer together there,

and at other times, we take turns sitting in the serene solitude

reading a spiritual book or praying the rosary.

To be relaxed we need space, a place of solitude where we can be

in touch with our deepest being.

This is what Jesus was doing when he rose early

and went off to a lonely place to pray.