As hard as it is for me to believe, I am now well into my fifth year as rector of Trory and Killadeas.

When I left my curacy in Bangor Abbey, the most common question I got asked was, “Won’t you be bored?”

The perception of a lot of people was that I was going “out west” to “look after a couple of sleepy parishes”.

This could not be further from reality. In fact, there are so many events, expectations and plate-spinning tasks in parish life, I almost always find I am so busy it is almost impossible to rest properly.

My parishes of Trory and Killadeas are a long, thin patch, approximately 1.5 miles wide and 9 miles long, starting on the outskirts of Enniskillen, just past where the new Lakelands Shopping and Leisure Complex is being built, and ends one mile before Castle Archdale Forest Park.

‘My’ shore of Lower Lough Erne is beautiful, and many tourists come to visit for good reason.

It is miles of picturesque shore of Lough Erne, and holiday makers enjoy hospitality in the shape of The Manor House Hotel, Tickety Moo and various campsites and activities on all sides.

Holidays, and escaping the day-to-day jobs and responsibilities however, don’t always bring the rest we intend.

We spend multiple hours on websites checking the best hotel and flight deals.

We then get up at an early hour we only ever see when catching a flight, exhaust ourselves travelling, and then repeat it all again a few days later to come home.

If you’re anything like me, you arrive, sightsee, travel, soak up a new and vibrant culture and cuisine, and make the most of every minute before collapsing on the bed at the end of another exhausting day.

Similarly, Christmas, Advent, Lent and Easter seasons are filled with preparations.

The holiday often involves travelling miles to see family and friends, or hours/days in the kitchen, and cleaning when it’s our turn to host – not to mention these Christian festival holidays are also ‘work’ for many of us.

We promise ourselves rest, but holidays are filled with busyness.

Rest is not just lazing around all day, but refreshing our body, mind and soul. Our bodies know when they need rest, and they recover quickly.

When our minds are tired, they take longer to recover, but when our soul is tired, then we hit real problems.

Taking a lazy day if you are usually active revives the body. Taking time away from work, switching off the phone, seeing family and friends, enjoying cultural activities all help the mind recharge.

Prayer or attending church on Sunday, even for those who claim agnosticism, has a calm tranquillity which resets the soul, and all are interlinked.

As someone who does not slow down or rest easily, I often turn to the comforting words Jesus says to the exhausted and weary, “Come unto me and rest” (Matthew 11:28), especially when placed in traditional language before the refreshment of Holy Communion, even if not fully appreciated, Sunday by Sunday.

Sunday worship is the primary place where many people come for spiritual refreshment, but for clergy, it has the dichotomy of being a place of work more than rest.

It is very hard to switch off, to come unto Christ for nourishment and refreshment, as we preside, preach and answer a tirade of questions at the church door.

The same is true for those employed by the church in administrative roles and the armies of active volunteers which parishes need to survive.

As a minister, even when attending a parish incognito, protocol states that we let the incumbent know we intend to be in the pew.

Instead of receiving refreshment for the weary, more often than not the invite comes to preach, or help lead the service. More ‘work’.

The comforting promise from Matthew’s Gospel, “and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:29), seems to ebb ever further away.

Happily, over the last few weeks I have been on my own holiday, and I was able to turn up to church on Sundays truly incognito.

What I found astounded me more than it should have as an ordained minister.

I found rest for my soul in busy periods, and bustling cities. As I went to Church of England and Church of Ireland parishes to worship, with delight I joined everyone in the congregation reciting the liturgy without the need for a prayer book, service sheet, or screen because the words, their meaning, and their beauty was ingrained within me.

It was effortless, and comfortingly familiar.

For the first time in months after a service, I was fully refreshed. The yoke of leading was handed over, and the reassurance of other confident voices responding lightened the load immensely.

The same is also true of many of my colleagues. Over the summer holidays we have tourists turn up in the congregations in Trory and Killadeas.

Approximately half of them since I arrived have been rectors, professors of divinity or church history, or people in full-time employment with churches.

All of them looking for the same thing when they come to my churches as I am looking for when I attend someone else’s.

To rest, to be refreshed, and to leave feeling better in body, mind and soul.

Of course, when Jesus referred to relieving the heavy burden, in the famous passage from Matthew’s Gospel, it was not preaching, presiding, or pastoral concerns – rather, he referred to the works which the Pharisees laid on the people.

I would love to make an analogy here about the mountains of paperwork in the church, but I shall refrain.

Administration is tedious, but not our heavy load. Our exhausting burdens we lay upon ourselves.

For most clergy, the burdensome yokes include taking on parish problems as our own and trying to do everything by ourselves.

Even in small parishes, when the burden of administration is too much, we can normally get help from volunteers, or diocesan staff when we find the right people to ask.

We are all searching for true, meaningful rest, whether as a Fermanagh tourist, a parent who is looking for a holiday with a safe kids club, or as a worshipper who simply wants to slip into the back row of a local church, and be refreshed by handing the reigns over to someone else.

To be led to refreshment, nourishment and rest, rather than leading others is a desire of our souls.

As a Christian, of course I believe we find true nourishment for body, mind, and soul when we share the load and share in the mystical food of Body of Christ.

In word and sacrament, the comfort of the scriptures and the welcome from Christ to join as one family around his table, there we find true rest.

When we welcome our tourists to Fermanagh this summer season, as Enniskillen often tops the polls for most welcoming town in the UK, perhaps we could help them find true rest by including in our welcome an invite to church, to come unto Christ, and rest their whole selves in the peace and calm which can be found there, as well as resting their body and mind in that wonderful Fermanagh hospitality.

Rev. Mark is the Church of Ireland rector of Trory and Killadeas parishes.