One-on-one time with Jesus

Jesus and the Church fathers often tell us that prayer should be ubiquitous in our lives.  We can pray anytime and anywhere.  We can offer all that we do to Jesus and make our every action a prayer.  While this is certainly true and spiritually salutary, Jesus shows us that, at times, we should also set ourselves apart from our daily activity and busy-ness to be present to God in a more dedicated way.

Our passage this morning concludes a section of Luke’s gospel (Lk 4:38-44) where Jesus has been quite busy in the town of Capernaum, the home town of Peter and James and John.  After spending the morning preaching and curing a demoniac in the synagogue, Jesus arrives at Simon’s house, presumably expecting a restful Sabbath meal.  Instead, he is called upon to heal Simon’s mother-in-law.  As the sun sets and the Sabbath ends, people flock to Simon’s house, bringing the sick to Jesus, who heals them all.

The next morning, Jesus leaves for a “deserted place.”  We often see Jesus doing this, most notably after his baptism, where he spent forty days in the desert.  Just a few verses later in Luke, we again hear him mention that Jesus “would withdraw to deserted places to pray.” (Lk 5:16).

These one-on-one times of prayer were very important for Jesus.  They gave him the wisdom, courage, and strength to understand his Father’s will and to follow it no matter where it led.  For example, while he may have thought that his productive time in Capernaum and the pleading of the people to stay with them were signs that he should continue his ministry there, his prayer time directed him another way – he was to proclaim the kingdom throughout Judea.

Just so, while we certainly benefit by integrating prayer into our daily activities and from gathering together in prayer at Mass and other group liturgies, setting apart time from others for one-on-one prayer with God allows us to listen more deeply and discern more clearly what God may have in mind for us.  By simply being still and resting in the Lord, we can also find renewed strength to serve others in his name.

I always had a difficult time finding that “alone time with God.”  My life was always busy and it seemed the only time I wasn’t doing anything was when I was asleep.  Where was I going to find any time for dedicated prayer?  The only way I could be sure of doing anything was to put it on the calendar.  If I just assumed I would do something whenever I had time, it never got done – I never had the time!

About twenty years ago, a group of people were inspired to start a perpetual eucharistic adoration chapel at St. Mary’s in Ridgefield, my home parish at the time.  This devotion was never part of my life before – oh, maybe a holy hour or two during Lent sometimes, but that was it.  To make that holy hour by myself – no benediction, no incense, no special occasion at all – seemed almost silly.

But I signed up for an hour.  It was not silly at all.  It was – and still is today – the best hour of my week.  Like Jesus in this morning’s gospel, I go off early in the morning – 4:00 am on Friday has always been my hour – and I find the dark and the quiet help still me and make me more aware of God’s presence to me.  Oftentimes in the spring and summer, as I leave the chapel, the birds are just waking and their chirping seems a celebration of the new day that is dawning.  I rejoice with them.  

For much of my time at St. Mary’s, I basically lived just behind the church and across the street from the chapel.  It could not have been more convenient.  Today, I have a ten-minute drive to St. Marguerite’s in Brookfield, where there is a perpetual adoration chapel.  At times, the thought enters my mind that I could do the same thing at home.  Why drive to the chapel?  But I know that’s just the devil talking to me, for I remember that before I committed to adoration, I also could have simply gotten up early and spend an hour with Jesus at home.  Yet I never did.  Other things always got in the way. 

Perhaps they do for you also.  If so, please consider joining me and commit to just one hour each week in adoration.  Perhaps you, too, will find it becomes the best hour of your week.