By The Reverend Christopher Phillips, assistant curate, St Margaret’s Church, Ilkley

There are times in the Church’s year when it all seems very busy. Holy Week and Easter is one such time: there are often lots of extra services on top of the usual ones, and for me this has meant a lot of things to prepare for.

So it has been very good to have had an opportunity to go on a retreat in the days immediately after Easter. This was not simply a chance to ‘get away from it all’, although it was that. It gave a bit of space to recharge batteries – emotional, spiritual, and physical – and to spend time in God’s company.

Of course this isn't something that only happens on retreat: God is present and active in the world, and if we look, we can see the signs of this in our daily lives. The Bible teaches us that we are all made in the image and likeness of God, and so to look on a fellow human being is, in a real sense, to come to see and experience something of God’s self.

But just as Jesus himself busied himself about his Father’s work, he was very careful to make time to withdraw from the world for short times, to be alone with his Father. Retreating like this might feel like a luxury – and indeed for many people, going and staying somewhere like a monastery or retreat centre is unaffordable and impractical.

But it doesn't have to involve great expense: there are a variety of ‘retreats in daily life’ available, often via the internet, which do not involve cost, and won’t demand absence from home or work. The key thing is to create some space, however small, in which one can find spiritual refreshment, to deepen one’s relationship with God.

The Bible tells a story of an encounter between Jesus and a woman at a well, in which Jesus tells the woman about the ‘living water’ which he has to offer. Those who drink of this water 'will never be thirsty', says Jesus.

The call to retreat is partly to drink at the spring of living water, so that we are sustained and refreshed in ways that we cannot necessarily give sufficient attention to in our daily lives. Often this break away from routine and the regular demands of life will lead to surprising experiences. Sometimes, these can be truly life-changing.

My prayer for each of us this week is that we try to find time to retreat in the midst of all the busy-ness of life, even for a few minutes. Take time if you can, to be alone, quiet and undisturbed. And then listen to that ‘still, small voice’ who offers you the living water, and drink deeply. May the refreshment you find bring life to you, and to those you spend time with in the week ahead.