Have you ever felt utterly alone?  Or have you ever had a moment where the weight of the loneliness you feel almost crushes you?

I can think of times I felt like this in my own life.  Moments such as…

• The first day my husband returned to work, and I was alone for the first time with our week old newborn son. I felt the responsibility of caring for God’s beautiful gift of my son, and I felt my uncertainty at knowing how to live out motherhood. Sheer panic set in for a few minutes, as I understood the reality that I was the only adult around to care for him.
• Or when we uprooted our lives in Louisiana and moved away from our hometown for the first time to a new city where we knew no one. The loneliness that year almost swallowed me at times as I so desperately yearned for friendships and a community.
• Or times in the middle of the night when I cannot sleep, and I am tossing and turning about a concern.  Sometimes, the silence of the night makes me feel like I am holding my concern solo.
• Or when I am celebrating a major moment of joy in my life, and I feel no one understands that magnitude of what this joyous occasion means to me.
• Or when the weight of what I am holding feels so heavy, and I feel like no around me notices the load I am carrying.

What about you?  What are the moments in your own life where you face loneliness?

When moments like this hit in our lives, and we face aloneness and loneliness, it can be hard to walk through.  It seems, though, that in these moments we touch our yearning for relationships.  When we look around us and see no one physically there or we feel people do not understand what’s happening in our lives, it can stir deep feelings of loneliness within us.

One of the life-changing moments in my life was the day I began to understand that we are ultimately never really alone. The day I first glimpsed at this understanding in prayer was a day I read the passage in the Gospel of John where Jesus promises us the Advocate, the Holy Spirit. As I read the words, “I will not leave you orphans,” something shifted within me.  I understood that God is always with me residing in the space I call our inner chapels.   It was a life-altering shift that I feel I’ve spent the last ten years trying to deepen and believe in more.

And guess what?  We each have an inner chapel.  It is the space within each of us where God resides, and we can call on God at any moment of our lives. No matter where we are, what we are doing, what we are facing, or what we are holding, God is with us. I believe much of our faith journey is learning to believe and to trust the good news of our faith.

The good news of our faith is we are never alone!

As we celebrate the Resurrection and our reason for hoping in the first place, let us repeat this good news over and over again to ourselves.  We are never alone.  We are never alone.  We are NEVER alone.

Let’s lean into this good news this Easter Season so we believe the promise of God that we are not orphaned, and that God will be with us always.  And as the scriptures urge us, this good news is not just for us to keep to ourselves, but for us to share boldly and freely with others.

Who in your life needs to hear the good news that they are not alone?

Go Deeper?

Pray:

• John 14:18// I will not leave you
• Isaiah 43// I will be with you
• Matthew 28:16-20// The Commission of the Disciples

Read:

• Never Alone
• New Apostolic Exhortation by Pope Francis

Cultivating Space for God Together:

Online Busy Person’s Retreat: April 23-26th

If your life feels busy and full, you’re not alone. Do you struggle to make time for prayer in your daily life? Perhaps you’ve tried to make a retreat in the past but didn’t have the time to get away.

What if you could make a retreat without having to leave your home or office?

The Online Busy Person’s Retreat gives you that opportunity!  Click here to register! You name your price!

Becky Eldredge

Becky is an Ignatian-trained spiritual director, retreat facilitator, and writer. She is the author of the Busy Lives and Restless Souls (March 2017, Loyola Press) and The Inner Chapel (April 2020, Loyola Press). She helps others create space to connect faith and everyday life through facilitating retreats and days of reflection, through writing, and through spiritual direction. With nearly twenty years of ministry experience within the Catholic Church, Becky seeks to help others discover God at work in the every day moments of people’s lives by utilizing St. Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises and the many gifts that our Catholic faith and Ignatian Spirituality provide.