A wise monk once said: “We are to be still points in a world that passes around us.” In the busyness of everyday life, perhaps it is difficult to imagine how this could be possible. And yet, that is what monks and nuns are called to be—a sort of “eye” in the center of the storm.
Even in a monastery, many things need to be done: pay the bills, do the dishes, make the cheese, clean the church. What then could it mean to be a point of stillness? Well, perhaps a key to living a contemplative life is to keep peace in one’s soul even in the flurry of activity.
The source of this peace is, in fact, not so much a what as a Who. It is God—Christ in the center of the soul—who keeps his creatures at peace, loving them into a supernatural stillness. It is a product of being cared for by the Father, being led by faith. It is a gift that God wishes to give to everyone, to whomever will “come to the water and drink” (Is 55:1), for “as members of one body you were called to that peace” (Col 3:15).
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