There are those on earth today who can fill themselves with work and those who can fill themselves with play.

            Some can and do fill themselves with dangerous things and some even fill their lives and their souls with laziness and minutes ticking by, unused, unappreciated, and sometimes even unwanted.

            Some on earth have neither work nor food enough, without strength enough to play and too hungry to recline and enjoy their rest.

            All the while, there is a chair and a place set at the table of God’s fullness.  There is a place card on that table for each of those who need a more balanced diet of worship and work, of play and prayer, as well as for those who need to exchange dangerous fullness for fulness of the divine sort.

            There are those who look to the east and west, seeing nothing but lack on either horizon, but all of us may look up into the face of God and feed upon His nearness.  Something within us hates and fear emptiness, and we aren’t meant to be full of it.

            The Word of God says that the Good Shepherd leads His sheep to pasture, and that the righteous are not forsaken, nor must their children beg for their bread.  Most of us know very little of physical hunger, but may God grant that we will not waste away for lack of His Word, His grace, His mercy, HIs love and His fulness. 

            May we in Cor Unum choose to consume the goodness of God; may we take the time to feast there.  Just as we sit down with our coffee or the newspaper or a good book or have a soak in the tub, God Himself can be enjoyed.  He IS OUR JOY!  We are the monastics of this century, and in the monastery of the heart there will always be a rule of silence that allows us to feast upon the fullness of God.

National Cancer Institute photo, by permission