Wherever we are or wherever we are going, we have our cell with us. For Brother Body is the cell, and the soul is the hermit who dwells in it, meditating there and praying to God. Therefore, if the soul does not preserve quiet and solitude in its own cell, of what profit is a cell made by hands?
Saint Francis of Assisi, Legend of Perugia - 80, with thanks to Portiuncula
Sometimes, though, the cell made by hands is necessary in a symbolic, almost a sacramental, way - or any place of solitude and silence - as St. Francis himself found when he withdrew from the villages around Assisi, to pray alone on the slopes of La Verna. Sometimes I come to my quiet room with the sense of someone picking up a glass of cold, clear water on a hot day - and with just that sense of finding the one thing my whole being not only longs for, but needs, at the deepest, most basic level.
1 comment:
I love the image of the cell... and your use of the cold glass of water.
Simple, basic and most necessary for life.
Thank you Mike.
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