Time alone together

Time alone with our Lord is essential to intimacy with him.

In addition to daily connection, periodic spiritual retreats can deepen one’s relationship with him tremendously. Most parishes offer Advent and Lenten mini retreats that can be perfect opportunities to step away from our busy lives and draw inward. To hear the voice of God, we must silence the chaos of competing noises for a period. To know God more deeply, we must first clean out the competing clutter in our minds. Spiritual retreats invite us into the inner sanctuary of our heart, veiled from the world, where loving intimacy can take place.

St. Augustine asserted that “Contemplation in fact is the reward of faith.” As Jesus said, “Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.” It speaks to the relational character of the Christian life. Faith requires following Christ in trust and putting him before all else. This purifies our hearts by placing us in a disposition of openness and receptivity to the Lord, in contrast to our fallen tendency to grasp and control. Contemplation is then a fruit of intimacy; the Lord reveals himself more as we grow in love and can receive him more. Oftentimes we think of contemplation as an intellectual pondering about an idea to gain greater knowledge or clearer understanding. Christian contemplation however is a relational seeing, or as the Catechism describes: “Contemplative prayer seeks him ‘whom my soul loves.”

Moreover, living in the world, being “strangers in a strange land,” we can naturally grow weary and discouraged. King David wrote about this in Psalm 73. He described knowing that God was good and faithful but growing despondent at the seemingly unfair and persistent prosperity of the wicked. In typical Davidic honesty, he admitted “But, as for me, my feet had almost stumbled; my steps had nearly slipped, because I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.” (Ps 73:2-3).

However, he took his discouragement to the Lord in prayer, going to God in the sanctuary. Stepping away from the world, and drawing near to God in faith, the Holy Spirit cleansed his perception and illumined his mind to see as God sees. “Though I tried to understand all this, it was too difficult for me, till I entered the sanctuary of God and came to understand their end.” (Ps 73:16-17).

The immediacy of our physical life on Earth can sometimes make us forget God’s eternal point of view. The Lord reminded David that although hedonists seemed to have it all without consequences, in the eternal scheme of things that which they loved would soon be at an end and they would have nothing. In contrast, love of the Lord and his love in return lasts forever. This in turn refreshed David’s soul, renewed his strength, and restored his enthusiasm for the Lord. He then exclaimed, “Whom else have I in the heavens? None beside you delights me on earth. Though my flesh and my heart fail, God is the rock of my heart, my portion forever.” (Ps 73:25-26). When we enter the Church, when we spend time with Christ in the Eucharist, when we open our minds and hearts to God at a retreat, it re-orders us from the temporal back to the eternal.

Venerable Fulton Sheen wrote that “Christianity begins with being, not with doing.” Our lives on Earth require so much work, even out of love for the Lord, but it all emanates first from our relationship with him. Christ himself modeled this for us. He of all people could have said his work was too important to take a break. And yet, with frequency and regularity, the Gospels recount: “Rising very early before dawn, he left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed.” (Mk 1:35). What would it look like for you to break away? How might you seek him whom your soul loves? He desires to refresh your soul, too.

Jendro teaches theology at Providence Academy in Plymouth and is a member of St. Thomas the Apostle in Corcoran. She’s also a speaker and writer; her website is taketimeforhim.com.