Molly Vass in Noetic Science Review writes of the awareness of need for and the deeper dimensions of rest which came to her after moving next door to a Benedictine abbey. She “realized that rest is the place of free mercy in our lives. It is the place of pause within. It has no expectation. It has no demand.” She emphasizes that “There’s nothing to do in rest, there’s nowhere to go, there’s nothing that’s more important or less important in rest. Rest is our birthright, and rest is part of our healing process.”

Toward the end of my winter of exploring the need, the meaning, and the experience of retirement, I took a week in unstructured silent retreat. No two persons will have the same experience of retreat; no two retreats will be the same for any of us. For me at that time, the theme of rest was important. I spent the week at Knobs Haven, the retreat center at the Sisters of Loretto Motherhouse at Nerinx, Kentucky, where the retreat director was my former Pendle Hill teacher, Elaine Prevallet. The first day there, I read from Julian of Norwich, “The best prayer is to rest in the goodness of God knowing that that goodness can reach down to our lowest depths of need.” That sounded like the prayer for the week. I gave thanks knowing that God would give me just what I needed.

–Frances Irene Taber in Pendle Hill Pamphlet 335: Come Aside and Rest Awhile