This week I was invited to visit the Presentation Spirituality Centre in Kooralgin Street. Knowing that the centre was so close to St Paul’s was an added incentive for me as we contemplated our move to Manly.
I have a deep need for times of quiet, peaceful reflection and prayer. Such times are a necessity for my own spiritual and physical health and for my ministry within the parish and community. I know that I am not alone with this need.
When you check into some hotel rooms these days you may find that rather than a “DO NOT DISTURB” sign there is a new message you can hang on your doorknob to keep the housekeeper away. Instead the message now reads “Peace and Quiet.”
People are not just looking to keep disruptions and disturbances at bay. They are looking to find something positive. They are searching in life for some “peace and quiet.” Or if “quiet” is too much to ask, just some “Peace.”
It is doubtful you’ll find real “peace and quiet” in a sterile hotel room surrounded by the sounds of other guests, electronics, elevators, street noises, and airplanes on their approach path. But the quest for somewhere and something that offers “peace and quiet” on demand is a dream that seems harder and harder to realize in a TGIF world.
TGIF: that is, a Twitter, Google, iPhone, Facebook culture. All those wonderful electronic connections that make it possible for us to stay in touch and stay informed make it almost impossible to encounter “peace and quiet.” And even if you are not into all of the wonders of this electronic age, chances are that, wherever you are, the incessant ring of someone’s mobile phone will shatter the peace.
It seems to me that the twenty-first century is eroding the existence of “peace and quiet.” It is precisely this promise of “Peace and Quiet” that the pastoral epistle of First Timothy promises. Paul indicates that it is in following Jesus, we find the way to “lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.” May you find deep and abiding “Peace” in your week!
Blessings
Reverend Shan