Hello friends,
This is Mark Gladman,
Also known as Brother Frederick James,
Your friendly neighbourhood monk in dogs.
Welcome back to our Reflection Series.
Stay here.
Something I've noticed.
Particularly in these last few years of my life,
Is there's a particular kind of loneliness that can happen even when other people are around.
You can be sitting in a room full of people and still feel completely alone.
And I wonder whether sometimes what we're really longing for isn't company,
But presence.
We want someone who sees us,
Someone who knows what's happening underneath the surface,
Someone with whom we don't have to explain ourselves.
And at the very end of Matthew's Gospel,
Chapter 28 and verse 20,
Jesus says something just so incredibly simple,
I think we gloss over it far too quickly.
He says,
I am with you always.
Now the always is important.
Is not just when things are going well or when we feel like we're close to God.
Or when we've got everything together and all our ducks in a row.
Just I am with you,
Always.
And even still,
There's still going to be times when you feel alone.
And so I think the promise here doesn't mean that loneliness goes away.
But that loneliness isn't the whole truth.
Now,
You may feel alone right now.
You may be walking through something that nobody else really seems to understand.
You may be missing someone.
You might be surrounded by people who love you and still feel that there's some part of you that no one can reach.
And that's okay.
Don't talk yourself out of the feeling,
But acknowledge that it's there.
That's the first step.
And then.
.
.
Understanding.
That situation and understanding that feeling is there.
Hear those words again.
I am with you.
Always.
And maybe you don't need to feel God's presence right now.
That's important.
Sometimes.
We expect God's presence to feel like peace or warmth or certainty or some sort of enlightened spiritual experience.
But sometimes presence doesn't feel like anything.
Sometimes someone can be sitting beside you and you don't even notice them.
Their presence doesn't depend on your awareness of it.
And maybe the same's true for God.
You may not feel God.
You may not sense anything particularly spiritual,
But still.
God is here.
So wherever you are right now.
Just allow yourself.
To stop trying to drum up some sort of feeling that you really don't have.
Because you don't need to feel accompanied.
All you have to do is allow yourself to be.
Accompanied.
Knowing that the feeling isn't really relevant.
So take a nice,
Slow,
Deep breath.
And imagine that you don't have to fill this space with words.
You don't have to pray beautifully or ask for anything.
Just sit with the possibility.
I am not alone.
You and maybe there's someone you need to reach out to.
Someone whose presence you miss,
Someone who might also be lonely.
Let the name and image of that person come.
As well.
You don't have to act on it right now.
But notice it because.
.
.
God's presence isn't something that we always experience when we are in solitude and by ourselves.
Sometimes it comes through another human being,
A voice,
A hand,
A conversation.
A shared male.
It's a beautiful message that arrives at exactly the right moment.
I am with you always.
Not just when you feel it.
But always just allow that to sink in over the next minute or so.
So if you're feeling lonely today or alone.
You don't have to make that go away.
Just don't let it convince you that you've been abandoned.
There's a presence beneath that feeling,
A presence.
That doesn't come and go with your emotions.
You are here.
And God is here.
Even now.
All you need to do is stay here.
Grace,
Peace and love,
My friend.
Until tomorrow.
Bye for now.
