I remember that in seminary, in our course on the spirituality of the priesthood, with our professor, Father Don Hying, who is currently the Bishop of Madison, Wisconsin, he would read from the letter to the Hebrews at the beginning of each class as our prayer. Thus, I feel a connection to these reading from Hebrews that we have had at daily Mass this week.
Our reading from Hebrews today talks about the rest we can only find in the Lord. The Israelites received the promise of rest, which foreshadowed the rest promised to us Christians. The land promised to the Israelites was seen as a place of rest that they could share with God. The author of Hebrews tells us that this opportunity of resting in God is available to us in our faith, even though the Israelites failed to fully participate in that rest due to their disobedience.
Wednesday, we commemorated Paul the Hermit, one of the first Desert Fathers. Today, we commemorate the most celebrated of the Desert Fathers: Anthony of Egypt, who was born in the middle of the 3rd century. St Athanasius of Alexandria, Doctor of the Church and Patriarch of Alexandria, Egypt, wrote a biography about St Anthony of Egypt, which made him a very popular figure in the Early Church. Anthony sold his large inheritance at the age of 20 and moved to the solitude of the desert. The movement of the Desert Fathers exemplified the way these early Christians felt called to live out the simplicity and silence of their faith. It reminds all of us how important our prayer life is to our faith, how we are called to find quiet reflective moments in our prayer life where we will encounter God in a very profound way. In a way, the rest of God which is addressed in our reading from Hebrews can be seen as symbolized in the lives of the Desert Fathers and in their spirituality.
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