Where will you most often find your phone when you’ve lost it?  You probably know just where that is.  Mine is more often than not in my bathrobe pocket (carrying it with me out of the bedroom in the morning and never thinking to look in such a silly place!)  When I start searching for it later, my closet is ringing!  Perhaps it’s the Lord, calling to see if I’m coming!

The Father waits in secret.  Jesus told us that.  Monastics believe it.  He waits, and we believe He waits with some anticipation, as we do to see our grown children coming home, our grandchildren coming in the door, our husbands and wives home from the office . . . the Fed Ex truck!

Here in Cor Unum Abbey, that spot is our “cell,” the one we prepare for ourselves, the place where we know we will meet with God.  Some “tents of meeting” have been remarkable for the resonance of holiness they acquire.

One family welcomed a visiting missionary from a very poor area in Mexico.  They made their guest room sparkling clean and inviting for this dear man who lived amidst such squalor and poverty.  They afforded him every kindness and consideration possible, and at first they thought he was just enjoying his room so much that he wanted to stay there, in seclusion, every morning.  Then they realized that he was up long before dawn, worshiping and praying, filling his room with the friendship he had with God.  He came down to breakfast, glowing.  Three days later, when he left them, they went into the room he had occupied and could barely stand for the lingering effect of the Presence … the friendship! … of God.

Ah, my dear Sisters, and Brothers, too!  There is a tent of meeting, a holy bower, for each of us in Christ and with the Father.  Beloved, FIND YOUR CELL!

Exodus 33:7-11 … Now Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away, calling it the “tent of meeting.” Anyone inquiring of the Lord would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp. And whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose and stood at the entrances to their tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent.  As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the Lord spoke with Moses.  Whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the tent, they all stood and worshiped, each at the entrance to their tent.  The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent.

Nun in Corridor, public domain