Friday after Epiphany
Where do you pray? Have you ever thought about where Jesus prayed? Two separate gospel passages this week give us some clues. Today we read, “...he would withdraw to deserted places to pray.” This phrase ends today’s passage from Luke (5:12-16) about Jesus curing a man with leprosy and many others. As word about Jesus’ healing spread, not just crowds, but “great crowds,” gathered to listen to him and “be cured of their ailments.” Jesus was in demand, “but he would withdraw to deserted places to pray.”
Earlier this week (Wednesday), we read another passage about Jesus getting away to pray. Mark tells us that after feeding the five thousand, Jesus dismissed the crowd and “went off to the mountain to pray.”
Where do you pray? Of course we can pray anywhere, but is there a special place where you can “withdraw” and be alone to pray? Is there some place in nature you treasure time alone with God? It strikes me that at least in these two passages Jesus was not going to the Temple to pray (although we know from other gospel passages that he spent time there as well). In this week’s passages, where Jesus is seemingly overwhelmed with throngs of people eager to be ministered to in word and in deed, he takes the time to find quiet places of solitude in nature to pray.
If Jesus, the son of God, needed time away to pray and recharge spiritually, how much more do we? As we enter into this new year and soon return again liturgically to “ordinary time,” hopefully leaving behind some of the busyness of the holiday season, how might you and I take time apart to pray? A snowy walk through the woods? A quiet day of reflection or retreat? A few minutes alone before children wake or after they’re (finally) asleep? Where might your “deserted place to pray” be today, this week? Perhaps you’ll find Jesus there.
—Eileen Miller