Monday Meditation

the gift of friendship

A friend loves at all times and a brother is born for a time of adversity. Proverbs 17:17

I’m grateful for my friends. One of the lines I love the most is the description of a deacon in the Presbyterian Church as one who leads the church to be “a friend to the friendless.” In our books of prayer there are prayers for those who are lonely and without friends in this world.

I’m thinking of friends just now because for the third year, I will going with two close friends to Mepkin Abbey, a Trappist monastery in Moncks Corner, South Carolina. We will spend this time deepening and renewing our friendship - close conversation, prayer-for-one-another, silence, walks in the fields and under the Oaks draped in Spanish Moss. In addition, we’ll participate in daily prayer with the monks, chanting the Psalms, listening to scripture and sitting in silence, as is the custom of Trappist monks. All in all, it’s an annual time to “step away.”

I consider these two friends to be brothers “in the Lord” - “Soul Friends “ - who are indeed given, if not born, for adversity. One is a Canon poet, the other a Bishop. I can call upon them in time of need, for wisdom, for prayer, for advice, for honest counsel and much humor, which is good for the spirit. 

May each of us be blessed with such friends who are to us as kinsfolk.

The pond on the grounds of Mepkin Abbey.