As we come to the very end of summer, I find myself thinking about how quickly this season seems to disappear. Every year, it seems that the press of the school year, the program year – whatever we choose to call it – pushes further and further into these lovely late-summer days.
There are so many things competing for our attention. Sometimes I wonder whether, in the future, this period in which we live will be known as the “Age of Distraction.”
Before I say more about that, though, I want to remind everyone that Monday, August 31, is the deadline to lock in the current pricing for our diocesan pilgrimage to Scotland and Iona, taking place May 29 through June 6, 2027.
I am very excited about this pilgrimage. We will have opportunities to worship, explore and shop in Edinburgh, take in Scotland’s beautiful sights, and enjoy a special day trip focused on wildlife. Most importantly, we will spend a good amount of time on the Holy Island of Iona – a place where we can reflect, pray, learn, and be together while exploring the history of Christianity and our faith.
We will be staying in a wonderful small hotel, where I am told the food is marvelous and many of the ingredients are sourced from the garden surrounding the hotel. The pilgrimage is open to people from outside the Diocese of Newark as well, so I encourage you to take a look at the information on the diocesan website before the current price guarantee ends on August 31.
Pilgrimage, of course, is only one of the spiritual practices we are exploring and learning about together in our diocese. Others include retreat, prayer – including praying out loud – discernment and the practice of seeking God’s will, and study, in addition to worship and the many other things we do together.
All of these practices are intended to help us grow in our spiritual lives. And, in many ways, they can also help us reduce the distractions that interfere with that growth.
St. Augustine famously wrote that our hearts are restless until they rest in God. He understood that restlessness as part of who we are: God made us for God’s own self, and ultimately, it is in God that we find the peace we are seeking.
We often talk about reducing distraction for the sake of our health and well-being, and there is certainly value in that. But as people of faith, I think it is important not to lose sight of something even more important. We seek to reduce distraction because distraction can draw us away from the peace that can only be found in God.
And the peace we find in God is the source from which all of the other forms of happiness and fulfillment in our lives flow.
So, as we begin this new year – this program year, school year, or whatever you call the season ahead – I want to challenge all of us to keep Augustine’s wisdom in mind.
What do you need in order to rest in God?
How might you reduce distraction in your life so that you can more fully connect with God?
Very few of the things that distract us are bad in themselves. The problem is what can happen when they begin to disconnect us – from our own feelings, from the people we love, and, most significantly, from God.
I hope that, in the months ahead, you will think about this question and keep returning to it. I also hope you will explore some of the opportunities available to us in the life of our diocese. Whether it is the lay retreat, the Bishop’s Study Group, our discernment event in the late fall, or a pilgrimage to the American South or Iona, these and so many other opportunities can help us continue to grow in faith and deepen our connection with God. They can help us loosen the hold that distraction has on us and make more room for what truly matters.
I want to close with a prayer from the Book of Common Prayer that I particularly love. It is found on page 832 and is titled “For Quiet Confidence”:
O God of peace, who has taught us that in returning and rest we shall be saved, in quietness and in confidence shall be our strength: By the might of your Spirit lift us, we pray, to your presence, where we may be still and know that you are God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
As we move into the fall, you might consider praying that prayer regularly as a reminder to reduce distraction and invite God more fully into your life.
I look forward to seeing all of you in the coming weeks. God bless you as we all enter this busy fall together.
