Rest - Refreshment - Recreation

These are the goods most vacationers seek as
the summer unfolds.  

But do we seek them at their source?

     In God alone is my soul at REST! declared the Psalmist.

Human life has a rhythm of work and REST.
(CATECHISM # 2184)

Creation was fashioned with a view to the Sabbath
and therefore for the worship and adoration of God. (#347)

This is the reason why God must have first place in our holidays as well as on our Sundays.  For the REST we seek is not merely cessation from labor.

            You are REST!   You are refreshment!  sang St. Francis of Assisi from the hermitage atop Mt. LaVerna .  We are made to live in communion with God, in whom (we) find happiness (#345), for God has made us for Himself and our hearts are restless until they rest in Him. ( St. Augustine )   That is why every vacation journey away from the ordinary needs to include some pathways leading to Him who is infinitely above the ordinary.  For only God’s love re-creates us in grace.

            His contemplation is our refreshment, wrote St. Clare.  This is why in our leisure as well as in our labor we must always make room for God, take time for prayer, for silence, for meditation, for sharing love with family and friends, with the poor, the lonely, the aged.   Then we discover a spiritual depth and delight in even the simplest of our vacation activities.

Our time is in the hands of God. (#2743)

            Awareness of this fact of faith stirs our gratitude for God’s gift of time.  It makes every working day as well as every holiday a gateway to grace and growth, a preparation for the unending rest and refreshment that we shall enjoy in His Presence in the new creation to which we all tend.

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