Both Marys and Marthas

As we come away from this busy Thanksgiving weekend, perhaps you, like me, found ourselves unusually busy, roasting turkeys, cooking, traveling, welcoming guests, attending family reunions, and (if possible) slipping off to our local parish for worship. Perhaps it became quite difficult to pray both Morning and Evening Prayer as usual. Time for Centering Prayer may have been compromised. Time within your lectio divina may have been shortened. William Menninger in The Loving Search for God: Contemplative Prayer and The Cloud of Unknowing, (New York: Continuum, 1998) gives us insightful words of wisdom as we ponder what we have experienced during the last three days:

My friend, in our loving search, we are neither Martha nor Mary. We are both. There are times when we are called to be loving God in the union of contemplative prayer, and there are times when we have to be busy about many things serving our brethren. Yet we must admit that Jesus, while certainly recognizing the need for both of these aspects, gives a preference to the loving, to Mary. This, he tells Martha, is the better part. There is, of course, a good reason for this and we have already spoken to you about it. The loving is primary and the activity must proceed from the loving. Remember, I told you that activity proceeds from being. Certainly there are times when Mary must work in the kitchen--but not when God calls her to some special time in the loving search, sitting at his feet in contemplative prayer. Martha, too, must do this, if her service is to be truly loving. The place of this loving prayer will be different in the lives of different people and it will even differ in the life of one person from time to time, depending upon where he or she is in the lovingsearch. (23)

Image: Sitting with Mary at Jesus Feet