In his book, The Sabbath, Rabbi Abraham Heschel described the Sabbath as a “cathedral of time.” Just as we need sacred spaces to put us in the presence of God, so we must set aside time where our attention and focus is on God. Before the pandemic, the idea of sabbath rest was almost completely lost. “My kids have to play soccer Sunday morning. It’s the only time they can get the field.” While Jesus warned against rigidity regarding sabbath rest he certainly saw it as a necessary element in spirituality. The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath. Perhaps this strange time we live in gives us an opportunity to re-capture sabbath rest as part of our own life of prayer.
