Jo Acharya | April 26, 2023

It’s wonderful that we can pray anywhere. There are no special requirements, no special rituals, no essential phrases.

But we can also pray ‘somewhere’. In a specific place that means something to us, where it feels easier to quiet the distractions of life and meet with God.

Some like to pray inside an old church, steeped in history and drenched with the prayers of centuries.

Some love to be surrounded by nature, God’s own cathedral, filled with reminders of his creative generosity to us.

Others may have a particular chair, a favourite window, a quiet room that contains their own personal history, the legacy of a long friendship with God lived in the everyday.

For Jesus, one of these places was the Garden of Gethsemane, where John’s Gospel tells us he often met with his disciples (John 18:1-2). In his darkest moment, when his prayers were most urgent, Jesus chose to pray in a familiar place, where he had prayed often in good times and bad; a place that held memories and comfort, years of loving guidance from his Father and lively discussion with his friends. This olive grove was Jesus’ ‘somewhere’.

Where’s your favourite place to pray?

---