16th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Dear Friends,

As I write this, we are celebrating the memorial of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. The Carmelite Order (of which we have a Third Order branch – Lay Carmelites – based out of our parish) has always had a strong devotion to our Blessed Mother. Mt. Carmel is really a range of mountains overlooking the Mediterranean Sea in Israel. It has always been known for its beauty. Elijah the prophet won a great theological battle, so to speak, against the prophets of Baal on that mountain. A community of hermits were living there by the 12th century, and they had a chapel dedicated to Our Lady. This was the origin of the Carmelite Order that has produced a few great mystical Saints and Doctors of the Church.

I mentioned the Carmelites for two reasons. One is the fact that we have a branch of the order here in our parish; but also, two, because the Carmelites are known as a contemplative community. They are men and women of deep prayer. In the Gospel reading for this weekend, we hear Jesus tell his Apostles, “Come away by yourselves and rest a while.” The Apostles had been working hard, and Jesus knew they needed a little respite. A time for holy rest and prayer. This is something that I recommend for all of us!

We all lead fairly hectic lives in our contemporary age. It’s important that we find some time daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly to have periods of holy rest and intentional prayer. We can do this daily by sticking to a committed period of time where we do nothing but commune with the Lord, whether that’s fifteen minutes or a whole hour. Pray when you pray best! We do this weekly in a primary way by attending Mass on Sunday and taking the rest of that “Sabbath” time for good leisure. We can do it monthly by trying, as best we may, to take one day during the month to pray a bit more than normal. Maybe it’s taking an extra fifteen minutes, or maybe an extra hour! We can do this yearly by trying our best to make an annual retreat. Perhaps this will be a retreat with your spouse, or maybe it’s personal, or maybe the entire family goes on a little retreat together. This is a time to, like Jesus tells his Apostles, to step away from the world for a little bit and re-engage with what is most essential – ultimately, God himself. If this seems impossible, ask the Lord to help open up these spaces in your life! And then, I believe, it’s a matter of choosing to do it. … Choosing rest. … Doesn’t that sound nice?

-Fr. Kennell