The model and justification of most holidays taken by clergy is Jesus\u2019s custom of going to a deserted place to pray. \u201cHe did it: you should too.\u201d From the earliest centuries, Christianity had its contemplative side; these stories are its foundation.<\/p>\n
Before that, though, there\u2019s the account of the flight of the Prophet Elijah from the vengeance of Jezebel in the 19th chapter of the first book of Kings. This is the model of clergy burnout. An angel gives him a hot cake baked on a stone, and lets him sleep. Then, when he wakes, he is offered another cake, and sleeps again. Only after that does he go up to the mountain of God where the Lord speaks to him, not in the sound of gale or earthquake, but in sheer silence, the echoing silence when the wind and the earthquake have passed. In that silence, God tells Elijah that there will be a new king, and also that there will be a new prophet, because more people have been faithful than Elijah is willing to credit.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a favourite story of mine, as is the one told by the reclusive 19th-century Hasidic sage Menachem Mendel Morgensztern of Kotzk, better known as the Kotzker Rebbe. It concerns the sacred goat whose horns reached up to the heavens. As he walked through the world, the goat heard a poor old man crying. \u201cWhy do you weep?\u201d asked the goat. \u201cBecause I have lost my snuffbox.\u201d \u201cCut a bit from one of my horns,\u201d said the goat, \u201cTake what you need to make a new one.\u201d You can guess what happened next. There are more poor folk in the world who have lost their snuff boxes than you can count.<\/p>\n
Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n After Christmas, the things I\u2019d been holding together in the parish had all come loose, writes @AliceGoodman17<\/a> https:\/\/t.co\/dnUpfie724<\/a><\/p>\n — Prospect Magazine (@prospect_uk) January 30, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \n