In the summer of 1666, a man saw an apple falling from a tree, he asked himself: why? and he took some time to think about it.  He came to the conclusion, with a very important answer:  the law of gravity.  Since the creation of the world, millions of apples had fallen from trees,  and millions of people had seen them,  but he was the first to come to the conclusion of the law of gravity. His name was Sir Isaac Newton, an English mathematician,  physicist and astronomer. The lesson we can learn from this is that it is not enough to see and hear things,  we must look for time to reflect, to look for deeper meaning. In the gospel today, after some busy days, Jesus invites the apostles to a quiet place, away from the hustle and bustle of life,  where they can rest, and recover their energy,  and then they can return to their mission, with renewed courage and vigour. The Buddhist (Zen) Monk – Haemin Sunim, wrote a very interesting book entitled: “The Things you can only see when you slow down”. He speaks about slowing down, maintaining good relationships and cultivating self-compassion. ‘You must come away…’ a phrase that Jesus uses in the gospel today, could best describe the spirit of our age: so little time and so much to do. The leisure time that Jesus speaks about seems to have vanished as we attempt to balance work family, driving children here and there and caring for elderly parents and relatives. We seem to be always in a rush. We are constantly being told about speed on our roads, people rushing all the time and even our eating habits suffer. We are reminded today by Jesus that one of the essential characteristics of a true apostle is to pause, take time out to rest, realign our priorities and open our minds and hearts to God. We all need more compasison for oursleves and this is why Jesus invites us to look for a place of quiet rest and silence, away from the hustle and  bustle of everyday life. In this place of rest, peace and quiet, in conversation with Jesus, we can realign our priorities, see what direction our lives are taking; what are you looking for in life? Then we can return to our mission with renewed vigour and enthusiasm. One of the wonderful moments that we have during the week is our community gathering every Saturday night and Sunday morning and it really is a pity that more people do not avail of this opportunity that we have. Let us thank the Lord for giving us this opportunity, and let us invite more people to avail of this gift. I knelt to pray but not for long, I had too much to do. I had to hurry and get to work for bills would soon be due. So, I knelt and said a hurried prayer, and jumped up off my knees. My Christian duty was now done my soul could rest at ease. All day long I had no time to spread a word of cheer No time to speak of Christ to friends, they’d laugh at me I’d fear. No time, no time, too much to do, that was my constant cry, no time to give to souls in need but at last the time, the time to die. I went before the Lord, I stood with downcast eyes. For in his hands God held a book; It was the book of life. God looked into his book and said “Your name I cannot find I once was going to write it down… But never found the time”