Each year we close the office for the week of July 4^th.  We have discovered that so many people use that week for getting away from the ordinariness of life, for  family gatherings or travel, that we too decided to use the week for our vacations or retreats.

This year is different.  I forgot to block out the week on my calendar and discovered I had filled Monday and Tuesday with appointments before realizing what I had done.  I have wondered why this happened.

There seems to be a tone of restraint in the air these days. I feel people holding back. I suspect some of it comes from the financial constraints that are happening because of the food and gas prices.  People seem to be making decisions fearing the difficulties these expenses impose.  Or perhaps it is the relentless heat of our early summer.  People are not as willing to go outside, even if it is a matter of simply driving in the heat to go shopping. 

This tone of restraint is also a spiritual response to the overflow of grace. In his poem “The Living Flame of Love” John of the Cross talks about the soul’s experience of God saying “Since now you are not oppressive, now Consummate!”  We seek to create the spaciousness of silence and solitude to discover the manifold ways God has been in the details of our lives.  We stop running around; we stop going outside ourselves because we have encountered the intimacy of God within ourselves and in all that is happening in our world. We want to open to the fullness of that encounter and restraining our compulsive, extraverted selves is simply a response to being touched.

In this month of July, become aware of your responses. Take back the simplicity of summer with all its opportunities for intimacy. Let the events of the world touch you deeply—to be thus engaged is to be making love with God who indwells all that is.  We will be closing the office the few days before Independence Day – not so much to do or to go, but so we can be available and attentive to the One who ‘tenderly wounds our soul in its deepest center!

Have a Blessed Independence Day Celebration!