A life without a centre is destructive

‘A life without a lonely place, that is, a life without a quiet center, easily becomes destructive’ and, we might add, shallow, dissipated and lacking in any sense of direction. We get nowhere if we fear to walk alone. ‘The busier life is, the more need there is for a still centre; a place deep within us to which we can withdraw after the day-to-day buffeting and storms; a place where we can reflect on experience and try and make sense of life: a place where we can mull over events and savour them more fully; a place where, above all, we can listen . . ‘to what others are saying verbally or non-verbally, to what our feelings and fears are saying to us, and to what God is saying through circumstances, through people, through creation and his word spoken in the depths of our being. ‘All these things pass us by, like views from the window of an express train, if we do not learn to stand still at disciplined intervals and do some stock-taking and viewing.

By Sister Margaret Magdalen, Jesus - A Man of Prayer, 40.