The Hour Between Visitors
Updated: Sep 2
“And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray.
When evening came, he was there alone.”Matthew 14:23
The last person has gone. The door has closed. The room is suddenly larger than it was.
You stand for a moment in the quiet that follows. It is not the deep silence of night. It is only the ordinary pause between one presence and the next.
There is still a cup on the table. A chair slightly out of place. The faint trace of a conversation that has already ended.
Jesus often sent the crowds away and remained behind. Sometimes he went up the mountain alone. Sometimes he simply stayed in the space that other people had left. The Gospel does not treat those hours as wasted time. After the work of feeding, healing, and speaking, he let the room empty. He did not rush to fill it again.
We are not always meant to fill every hour. Some hours are given to us as intervals: spaces where nothing particular is required except to be there. The hour between visitors can feel awkward at first. The hand reaches for the phone. The mind begins the next task almost before the door has shut.
If we allow the hour to remain empty for a little while, something else becomes possible. A quieter noticing. A slower breath. The simple fact of being without an immediate purpose.
This belongs to the Mass as well. The liturgy is not only movement and speech. There are pauses: after the reading, after the homily, after Holy Communion, after the last blessing, when the church itself becomes larger again. Christ is not less present because the crowd has gone. The same Lord who dismissed the people and stayed behind still keeps these in-between hours. He does not measure them by what we produce.
You do not have to use this hour. You can simply inhabit it.
When the next knock comes, or the next message arrives, you will return to the work. But for now, this unfilled space is also part of the day.