This Week

This week at praxis...Time Out

The apostles gathered around Jesus, 
and told him all that they had done and taught.  
He said to them, "Come away to a deserted 
place all by yourselves and rest a while." 
For many were coming and going, and they 
had no leisure even to eat.  And they went 
away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves.  
Now many saw them going and recognized them, 
and they hurried there on foot from all the 
towns and arrived ahead of them.  
As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; 
and he had compassion for them, 
because they were like sheep without a shepherd; 
and he began to teach them many things. 

When they had crossed over, 
they came to land at Gennesaret 
and moored the boat.   
When they got out of the boat, 
people at once recognized him, 
and rushed about that whole region 
and began to bring the sick on mats 
to wherever they heard he was.  
And wherever he went, into villages 
or cities or farms, they laid the 
sick in the marketplaces, and begged 
him that they might touch even the 
fringe of his cloak; and all who 
touched it were healed. 
-Mark 6:30-34, 53-56



What I want is to leap out of this personality
And then sit apart from that leaping-
I've lived too long where I can be reached.
-Rumi

 
If you...call the Sabbath a delight...
then you shall take delight in the Lord
and I will make you ride upon the
heights of the earth.
-Isaiah 58:13-14

You are not made for the Sabbath; the Sabbath is made for you.
- Jesus, in Mark 2:27

The story is told of a South American tribe 
that went on a long march, day after day, 
when all of a sudden they would stop walking, 
sit down to rest for a while, and then make 
camp for a couple of days before going any farther.  
They explained that they needed the time of 
rest so that their souls could catch up with them.
-Wayne Muller, Sabbath: Restoring the Sacred Rhythm of Rest

How do you put on the brakes?
"I pray every night before I go to bed.  
I find that it puts whatever immediate concerns 
I have into a much broader framework.  
When I am traveling, I always go to churches, 
which are usually oases of calm, 
in even the most busy cities."  
-Rupert Sheldrake, maverick biologist

"My secret is that I try never, 
never to speed up.  If I do find 
myself doing too much, I try to 
get 11 hours of sleep."  
-Jane Smiley, novelist
--Utne Reader, March-April 1997
 
Three generations back
my family had only

to light a candle
and the world parted.

Today, Friday afternoon,
I disconnect clocks and phones.

When night fills my house
with passages,

I begin saving
my life.
-Marcia Falk, "Will"


Questions:


	How did your family rest, or take a Sabbath?

	Are there special ways you rest, or take a Sabbath?  What do you do, or not do?

	How important is it to go away for awhile?  What happens if you don't rest?

	Is it easy for you to slow down or not?  Why?

	The idea of sabbath comes from the ten commandmentsWhy is it in the 
	ten commandments?  Why don't we follow this commandment more easily?  

	How does our society affect the way you understand the idea of sabbath?