Desert Day

Good Morning All,

One of my colleagues spends a week each year at a Benedictine Sisters Monastery on retreat. While living among them she has learned so much about prayer and meditation. She also learned about some of the other disciplines of monastic life. Of course as you might suspect, the sisters live a very simple life, unencumbered by many worldly possessions. They each live in a very small room that consists of a few pieces of furniture, wall décor, books, clothing and other personal items.

Each year the resident sisters observe “Desert Day.” Now at first hearing I thought this was a day of fasting and prayer, but it is something altogether different. It’s a day when each sister removes everything from her room--every last thing and then has to make decisions about what gets put back! They also have the option of putting every bit of it back as before, but not without stopping to think and pray about what is needful or desired.

Most of us only dare to go through this kind of practice when we are moving to a new house or apartment! We make stabs at it when we do a little Spring or Fall cleaning or as we get ready for a yard sale. Think about it though…what would the discipline of an annual Desert Day in our own homes and offices look like? What about our church building? How many trips to the Dorcas Shop or Good Will would you make? Or would you just air it all out on the lawn and put it all back?

But I think I am fascinated more by the discipline of having to think and pray about each item before determining its fate…Now, there’s the intrigue…figuring out the item’s worth in my life… not necessarily its monetary value; more than likely I would spend way more time considering an item’s personal sentiment; the memory, the story it holds, the joy or the sadness it evokes…after all, so many things really are priceless…

I think we also have to ask some other questions as well: What can I live without? What can someone else use more than I? What items are really cluttering up my life? Then I begin to think about how many more possessions each of us has in comparison with a Benedictine sister…Whew! It’s laughable! But even in light of this gross comparison, when the dust all clears, the discipline is still the same, is it not?…thinking and praying about what is needful in our lives…

And then my mind begins to play with other ramifications of “Desert Day”… What if we applied this same ritual, not with our possessions, but with our thoughts and actions…clearing out the clutter; sorting through what stays or goes…all the while thinking and praying about what I think, say and do in order to be a more faithful person…Asking for God’s strength, courage, and yes, much forgiveness. Whew! Maybe that’s a discipline for another day…then again, I’m pretty good at multi-tasking…how ‘bout you? O, Lord, give me strength…Blessings, Joanne