"One Celtic bother called Cronan moved his whole establishment to Roscrea after a royal visitor had been unable to find him in Sean Ross.
'I shall not remain in a desert place,' he said, 'where strangers and poor folk are unable to find me readily. But here, by the public highway I shall live, where they are able to reach me easily.'
This urge to dispense hospitality to the wayfarer and the indigent led to the founding of Christian settlements along the main roads of Ireland." (Finan Readings, Celtic Daily Prayer, Feb. 2)

I am a people person, over the top extrovert, I love to throw a party and be around lots of people, all kinds of people. I'm so glad my wife humors me in this area. I rearranged half my house yesterday just to throw an epoch super bowl party. But I have long felt guilty when I read introverted contemplatives to whom a monastic way of living seem to come so natural. I do not do well alone nor quiet. Its not peaceful for me, its really stressful. I believe that God meets you where you are at and how you are wired. I long to live in the reality of "soul quiet" which is only possible through the spiritual disciplines, but I don't want to go to the desert to find it. I am a missionary by calling. Called to be with people and incarnate the Gospel amongst them. But this is a challenge as well. Getting caught up entertaining and performing and not taking the time to as Paul McGillivary says, "feel your nothingness". But I am called to live monastically and missionally amongst where people are. And in my landscape, the public highway is here in the suburbs of Cincinnati. Yes, the suburbs. So we are to live missionally around lots of people in order to love our neighbor, but also live monastically where our journey of dying to self magnifies the love of God in our lives. I am a suburban, monastic, missionary living out an old faith in a new world.

Stop and notice the Kingdom today.

peace,