Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

A Deserted Place—A Place to Pray

After miracle stories, stories of great compassion and healing, Jesus goes to the desert to pray! Can you imagine why Jesus might have chosen to do that? Do you experience a need for solitude, a need for time away from everything that is so stimulating and entertaining, a time to just be?

Jesus always sought to do the Father’s will. He wanted to do what God was calling him to do. He was tireless in his efforts to preach and teach and heal, in his desire to invite and include and build up. And he, like us, needed clarity and a re-focusing of his energy to God’s purpose for his life.

I hope you are reading Perfectly Yourself and rediscovering God’s purpose in your own life  As you go through this week, may you find some “desert place” to pray and some time to focus again on serving God and neighbor.

Perhaps you will recognize in your prayer the persons you know who are experiencing the kind of darkness that Job speaks of. What can each of us do for our friends and neighbors? Reaching out and accompaniment in great suffering is a healing ministry that we too can engage in.

Bless our efforts, dear God! Bless our efforts to seek you, to spend time with you in solitude and to then serve in new ways with HOPE and new energy in all of our ministry and presence to others.