Thoughts on Prayer in “Deserted places”
Every week she makes a list: family and friends who are ill or going through some crisis, some news story she read that moved her, a difficult situation in the community in need of God’s grace. On days when she goes on a run, she takes a small piece of cord and ties a number of knots in it, each knot corresponding to one of things on her prayer list. The cord is light, so it’s no trouble to carry with her. As she runs, she holds one knot at a time and uses it as a reminder of what to pray for. The next time she goes for a run, she either reties the cord, adding or leaving off knots, or uses a fresh piece of cord. Her “spiritual run” is her “deserted place.”
She is reminder to pray for Our Lady Undoer of Knots to intercede for her.
Most mornings, he’s up first. He makes the coffee while scrolling through his calendar. He pours his first cup of the day — and then he sits in a chair across from the window looking out over their wooded back yard. He reviews the day ahead, considers how he’s going to deal with challenges he will deal [face], thinks about loved ones going through a tough time and wonders what he might do to help. Just a quiet time every morning to get his head together and let his heart ramble — that “deserted place” within where God speaks to him.
Maybe he asks the Sleeping Saint Joseph to wake up and intercede for him.
She sits quietly on her porch knitting a sweater for a grandchild just coming into the world. Into the stitches of that sweater are her prayers for a safe delivery, her hopes for the child and her son and daughter-in-law. The work itself is a prayer for the safety and wellbeing of mother and child, a labor of love, a ritual of welcoming a new life to her extended family. Her knitting needles and yarn are her “deserted place.” [Connections- From Running: The Sacred Art — Preparing to Practice by Warren A. Kay and The Knitting Sutra: Craft as a Spiritual Practice by Susan Gordon Lydon.]
St. Mark tells us that Jesus took time to go to a quiet place, a “deserted” place to pray. That place may have been geographical, but most often the “deserted” place was in His soul for quiet time with God the Father. Jesus urges us to take time to pray, set aside quiet time, special time each day to be with Him, to listen to Him and share with Him our longings, our concerns and our petitions.
Saint Joseph, pray for us.
Saint Andre Bessette, intercede for us.
May God Be Praised!
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