The Presence of God

I have always been fascinated by monasteries. One of the great blessings I have living where I do is access to two amazing monasteries as well as the grounds of a Conventual Franciscan Motherhouse. I have made visiting Saint Meinrad Archabbey at least an annual trek. I find that no matter how wound UP I am when I arrive, I find myself immediately winding down. It is a quiet place and a very peaceful place. There is something good here; there is, very much, the presence of God here.

Despite the fact that I am a minister, the presence of God is often elusive to me. It comes, I suspect from my failings, my own sin, my own busy-ness, my own preoccupation with doing ministry without recharging myself. It often comes from being over analytical and forgetting to feel God’s love and just intellectualizing God. It is easy to rationalize away so many things and often one of those ‘many things’ is spending time with God.

One think I admire about the monks is that they do spend time with God every day. They are in the chapel at 5:30AM every day for an extended period of time and then they are back mid-day, evening, and at night. Well, their ‘night’ is 7pm, but if you have to be ‘up and at em’ at 5:30AM, I guess bed time is on the early side!

But they spend time with God every day and they pray and chant the psalms slowly and methodically. There is no rush.

The grounds of the monastery remind us that they have been prayed over mightily over the years. This monastery was founded in 1854 and the Benedictine monks have been around since the mid point of the 6th century. Their rhythm and style has never been quick but it has always been constant.

I do admire the monks. I am not called ever to be one and I have never been. They do, however, remind us of the importance of stopping to pray and being slow and methodical before God. There is something holy about that.