ROOM FOR REFUGE
In 1975, a room was discovered below a trapdoor in a storage closet of the Medici Chapel. In this building where the great sculptor and painter Michelangelo once worked, a tiny room had been long forgotten. But when the layers of plaster were carefully removed, the walls revealed intricate sketches of artistic masterpieces. Historians now think that this creative master of the Renaissance took private refuge in the narrow, windowless room to escape the danger and attention of political upheavals in Florence. There, in the candlelit darkness, he practiced his craft with charcoal sketches. This year is the first time the room is open to the public.
ROOM FOR PRAYER
In this lesson from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus discusses the role of prayer in preparing ourselves for work in God’s kingdom. Christ’s followers are not to seek attention through their prayer, but they are to find the privacy for a conversation with the heavenly Father, “who sees what is done in secret” (Matt. 6:15).
Questions
- How do you find balance between activity and solitude in your work or ministry?
- Where do you go to “retreat” for prayer?
- What differences do you notice between your private prayers and prayers you might hear in public?