Sanctuary
Let me live for ever in your sanctuary, safe beneath the shelter of your wings! Psalm 61:4 NLT
I led a pilgrimage to Glendalough in County Wicklow some years ago. It’s a medieval monastic community founded in the sixth century by St Kevin. We enjoyed an amazing time reflecting on the life of faith and participating in activities that brought to life the history and strong spiritual heritage of Ireland.
At the entrance to the monastery there is, secured into the rock of the entrance, a large ring. This was for those seeking sanctuary from the law. If they grasped hold of it, they were invited to stay within the monastery for a year. If they found faith and as an act of contrition joined the monks as part of the community, their debt to society was deemed paid. I am sure years of prayer is a better return for society than an individual rotting in a prison. Maybe we need to establish sanctuary churches today?
Sanctuary literally means a place of “refuge or safety from pursuit, persecution, or other danger”. So often we look to God as a sanctuary more in keeping with a spa. A spa in central London advertised itself as “…the ultimate act of love…a place of pure tranquillity…to relax, unwind and recover”; it was entirely about self-indulgence. However, God’s offer is to provide a point of ultimate resistance to the appetites and temptations that will only destroy our walk of faith. The simple point being that without surrender to God we must be eaten up and spat out by a fallen world. God offers us sanctuary, a place where we can live even as we wage war in our daily life within contemporary society.
QUESTION
What does investing in cultivating your inner life look like?
PRAYER
Dear God, address the wounds I carry; give me fine healing and refreshment as I continue to engage in the fight of my life for my own salvation and that of those around me.