A half-day of prayer: going away to look back over your life
Between work, family, church and screens, our days are packed to bursting. Yet Jesus said to his tired disciples a sentence that is almost a prescription: "Come ye yourselves apart." This monthly quest invites you to devote a half-day to going apart to pray, review your life and listen to God.
What it looks like in your day
Three to four hours is not nothing. But well prepared, they become precious time. Here is how to organize your half-day:
Before
- Choose a date, block it in your calendar, tell your family.
- Choose a quiet place: a chapel, a park, a friend's house, a forest, a borrowed room.
- Take a Bible, a notebook, water, a snack. Leave your phone in airplane mode.
During
- First hour: settle in. Walk, breathe, let the agitation fade. Read a psalm.
- Second hour: review your life. The past weeks, your relationships, decisions, joys, trials. Write down what comes.
- Third hour: speak and listen. You present to God what you have seen: thanks, sorry, questions. Then you are quiet, you listen. Note what comes.
- Last half-hour: hold on to something. One or two concrete decisions, a verse, a prayer. Write them down.
After
- Keep your notes. Reread them in a week.
- Put one of the decisions you made into practice.
If you are in a hurry, a three-hour morning is enough. If it is your first time, take a written plan. If you have children, have your spouse or a loved one cover for you. If you are shy, don't forget that being alone is the point.
What the Bible says
The apostles come back from a mission, exhausted and amazed, telling Jesus everything. He says to them:
“And the apostles gathered themselves together unto Jesus, and told him all things, both what they had done, and what they had taught. And he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat. And they departed into a desert place by ship privately.”
Notice: they had "no leisure so much as to eat," there were so many people. Jesus doesn't tell them: "Take heart, keep going." He says: "Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while." Rest and prayer are part of the mission. The Gospel of Luke says of Jesus himself that he regularly withdrew to deserted places to pray (Luke 5:16): this is not a luxury reserved for contemplatives, but a rhythm of life.
The prophet Isaiah also speaks of a renewal for those who wait on the Lord (Isaiah 40:31): withdrawn to wait, they regain strength.
Pitfalls to avoid
Filling the time with tasks. A half-day of prayer is not a half-day of office work moved elsewhere. Keep work for later.
Feeling guilty about "wasting time." The practical mind says: "I have so much to do." Remember that Jesus judged this time necessary.
Looking for a powerful experience. Sometimes nothing obvious happens. This time has value even if you felt no emotion.
Not concluding. If you take away no decision and no sentence, you risk losing everything. Note at least one thing.
Isolating yourself from everything. This half-day is a time apart, not a break: afterward you return to your relationships and responsibilities, renewed.
This month, block out a half-day in your calendar. Prepare a place, a plan, a notebook.