Meditation is an essential discipline of our Lenten Journey. Holy Leisure is a pillar of Benedictine wisdom. There are a lot of similarities. Not all leisure is holy leisure, although I can always make a good case for totally unproductive activity every now and then. Holy leisure is the intentional quiet space in which life-changing dreams can surface, much like our Lenten meditation.
Whether we call it meditation or holy leisure it helps to tie it to a special place or activity – a chapel, a comfortable chair, a walk in the woods, fishing on a lake or on the bank of a running stream, or knitting. Doing the same thing in the same way or the same place done often enough, will draw you into the mindfulness we seek. It triggers your more mindful self.
Abiding yourself in a special place or activity allows holy leisure to take place, and we have space to ask ourselves important questions. Who am I, and why am I here? Every one of us has a spiritual life, and the refreshment of meditation/holy leisure fuels our spiritual and creative impulses. Meditation/Holy leisure permits prayer to deepen action and brings harmony between our spiritual life and our temporal life.
During Lent we use holy leisure/meditation to ask whether or not our actions in society comports with the person we know ourselves to be. The solid me that God knows, rather than the me that the temporal and demanding world invites me to become.
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