Creating a prayer space

If I don't go into the desert to meet God, then I have nothing to say when I go into the market-place. That's very important......I could only survive my work as Archbishop........if I have allocated so much of the day to prayer. That has to be done, in my case, early in the morning. I don't think I could survive in my job unless I had that half hour. It has become very important to me....." 

Addressing his comments to God 

"I am caught between the desert and the marketplace - in the desert there is space, solitude, silence, stillness - a sense of your presence, nothing between You and me, just You and me - as indeed is the case snow in this half hour, just You and me - sometimes a Gethsemane experience, a struggle with anxieties, fears, the sense of being overwhelmed by the problems of life, or just bored or distracted - sometimes a Mt Tabor experience when we can say 'it is good Lord to be here'. I love the desert. In the marketplace the world is present.....Distractions abound and temptations too. Must I flee from the market-place and go to the desert.....and yet all those people are made to Your image and likeness - drawn to them I am drawn to You, admiring them, I admire You, fond of them, I am fond of You." 

Basil Cardinal Hume