Hurry: Silence & Solitude.
Week #3
Opening Reflections.
Where have you seen God at work in your life this week?
What did you notice this week as you paid attention to your own symptoms of hurry and ‘hurry sickness’?
How has your spiritual practice been this week? Have you experimented with anything new?
The apostles gathered round Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, ‘Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.’ So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place.’
Mark 6:30-32
A response to Sunday’s message.
1. Was there anything which particularly resonated with you? (Any moments of ‘Aha!’)
2. Was there anything you felt resistance to? (Any moments of ‘Grr’, or ‘Oh, no!’)
3. Was there anything else you particularly noticed?
Have you felt bored recently (or are you just too busy)? What are your strategies to avoid boredom? Do you think boredom is always something to be avoided at all costs, or do we need to pay attention to it? Is it trying to tell us something? Is easy access to ‘digital distraction’ always a bad thing? What strategies could we use for a ‘digital detox’? How can we be more fully present?
Do you find yourself living in ‘a world of noise’? Where and when do you experience silence? Which do you find more troubling, Internal or External noise? In what ways do we use external noise to distract us from having to pay attention to the noise inside our heads? (Is this why David Bowie’s ‘Ziggy Stardust’ album carried the instruction, ‘To be played at maximum volume’?)
How do you read the story of Jesus in the wilderness? After his baptism, Mark 1:12-13 tells us, ‘And immediately the Spirit cast him out into the wilderness (Gk. eremos = wilderness, desert, solitary place). And he was in the wilderness forty days being tempted by the Accuser…’ [The New Testament, David Bentley Hart trans.]. What does the experience of ‘wilderness’ mean to you? Do you think of it as something positive, or more of a problem to be avoided?
Lectio Divina.
Ask someone to read Mark 6:30-32.
1. LECTIO (read)
Read these verses again on your own
2. MEDITATIO (meditate)
Ponder the text, imagine you are Martha and Jesus is speaking to you, allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you as you read
3. ORATIO (pray)
Turn you reading to prayer
4. CONTEMPLATIO (contemplate)
Silent prayer as you experience the love of God
Discussion.
Do you feel like a member of the ‘frazzled digital generation’?
How can we actually live like Jesus today and realistically incorporate rhythms of silence and solitude into our daily, weekly and annual routines?
Closing Reflections.
What you will take away from this study and discussion? What is a specific practice you can experiment with this week?
Pray together for each other, in response to your answers.
