This past week, we celebrated the feast of St Aidan, who is the patron saint of our Benedictine chapter. Aidan was a monastic who lived in the 7th century in Ireland, and, at King Oswald’s request, was sent as a missionary from Ireland to Northumbria alongside twelve other monks. He established a monastery at Lindisfarne, where he became Bishop. Although he had the means to travel in comfort and style, he preferred to travel on foot so that he could preach the Gospel to everyone he met. Because of his slow, patient perseverance in this missionary work, he is credited with the revival of Christianity in Northumbria.

Yet, Aidan’s preference was always for a life of contemplation. Although Lindisfarne is cut off from the mainland by tides twice a day, he would often make retreat alone to one of the smaller, more remote islands for prayer and solitude. In the 16 years he was Bishop, this was a regular practice for him, alongside his active preaching and evangelization.

I mention all of this because I often find myself wondering what priority we place these days on contemplation and prayer. Busy-ness seems to be much easier to achieve: one can effortlessly fill entire days and weeks with endless meetings, activities, engagements and encounters, unbroken by a single moment of quiet and rest. In fact, seeking rest and quiet seems to carry with it a combination of guilt and fear for many people. Perhaps because it is then that we have no distractions to keep us from facing our deepest fears, doubts, and insecurities.

But it is also where we will finally have the opportunity to hear the voice of God. But perhaps we are afraid of that too? Yet, how can we possibly pray when we do not know who we are praying to? How can we worship if we do not know the voice of the one who calls us? How can we claim to long for God’s presence if we never seek it?

May we all be called back to the practice of the presence of God this week, even as the fall season begins to call us back to a life of busy-ness.

Mother Amanda

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