I ENDED THE FIRST REFLECTION by mentioning
the way we’re all held in the Sacred Heart of God and need to open ours to him
– to open our heart to the silence of God and enter that sacred, loving and
creative space. In a brief meditation
that has touched many, the late Mother Osyth of the Anglican Benedictines at West
Malling wrote: ‘Be silent, still, aware, for there, within your own heart,
the Spirit is at prayer. Listen and learn, open and find, heart-wisdom.
Christ.’ … Remember, when you come to the heart of
something – the centre of a wood, the vast expanse of stars in the Milky Way –
or when you stop to really look at a painting, a landscape – or listen to a
piece of music. 'God', said
St Teresa of Kolkata, 'is not to be found in noise and restlessness, but in
solitude and silence.'
APART FOR THE WORD spoken in
Creation and through Mary, it seems silence is often the language of God. But silence, for many, can be oppressive,
which is why we need to befriend it and let the eye of our heart look beneath the
fear, anxiety and despondency which can afflict us. Look at what the Word has done in Creation;
wonder at the stars, at the flower growing in the gutter, the song of birds and
glistening of sunlight on leaves; and give thanks. Only in silence can we realise a communion
with creation which will take us beneath outward forms into the heart of being.
And because Creation is alive, it is full of what we might experience as ‘good’
and ‘evil’. As I wrote in The Mystery of Faith:
‘Christianity
also accepts that (these must co-exist) and what might appear to be random,
sometimes chaotic processes are indispensable if we’re to have the universe we
know (and we can’t know any other). ‘Good’ and ‘evil’ must co-exist; if things
had been even slightly different, life probably couldn’t have emerged from
primordial chaos.’ (Ch.2)
GOD ISN’T ABSENT, but we
might have become absent to God. Perhaps
this is the time when we might re-discover a communion which is holy and not
passing, where our heart needs to expand to encounter the depths of Divinity
for which we were made. When Christ
cannot be present to us in the Bread of Life, we need to feed on that Word
which comes from the mouth of God in the whole of Creation. And that usually takes time and attention.
THE PROBLEM IS we often want God
to be like instant coffee, ready-to-go, the panacea of our needs; we can pray
for miracles, but we can’t depend on one – that’s the nature of a miracle. God isn’t a Big Daddy who solves every
problem; God is the fount of compassion, mercy and goodness, for God has shared
in our suffering and lostness. God is
the well-spring of faith, hope and love who doesn’t ‘send’ war and pestilence;
such things are the consequence of what it means to live in a world alive with
life, a world where people have the freedom to choose how to respond; where
there needs to be both light and darkness, where only suffering can reveal the
depths of love.
As we approach Good Friday, we
might consider afresh what must it have been like for Jesus’ Mother at the foot
of the Cross. There she stayed – there love stayed. Would we ever know the
depths of love if there were no suffering? For suffering can bring compassion
as well as bitterness and anger and can unite us with the heart of the Other.
FOR MOST PEOPLE, silence isn’t
something they associate with prayer, something that happens in the silence of
the heart. I wrote about this in The
Mystery of Faith in a section I called The Soul’s Desire, (p. 95): ‘Finding time
for silent prayer can seem impossible but we can all develop methods of
‘everyday contemplation’. A lot of the
practices associated with Mindfulness have their roots in ancient traditions of
Christian prayer – how to keep focussed, deal with unwanted distractions,
develop an inner calmness and stop worrying – yet many think Christians don’t
meditate or it’s only for monks and nuns. But meditation and contemplation are the
deepest forms of prayer for all Christians and it’s usually possible to find time when you can simply stop for a
while and turn your heart to God. On the
train coming home from work, at times when you set an alert on your phone or as
a clock strikes - all are ways of halting the busyness of life. Here are some suggestions to help you
develop your own practice:
First,
slow down. Cycle more slowly, walk
more gently and learn to breathe deeply.
Then
stop and be, even for a
minute.
Next,
pay attention. Be really
present to whatever you’re doing and train yourself to pay attention – whether
that’s to the person you’re with, the painting you’re looking at of the view
out of the bus window.
Take a long, loving look at the real. Go into your
garden and take a long, deep, loving look at everything you see. (And if you
don’t have a garden, gaze at something out of your window.)
Engage your senses. Notice
everything around you by utilising all your senses and give thanks for the
presence of God in all things.
And
if you find that your mind is over-active – full of noisy parakeets flying all
over the place – train yourself not to give them your attention. The more you
do the worse they become.
‘Prayer of the
Heart’
engages the rhythm of our breathing to help us deepen prayer and can be
practiced whenever and wherever you are. Simply ‘watching’ our breath as it
descends into the heart is a profound form of prayer for it intimately connects
us with the Spirit who animates all things.
Dom John Main, an English Benedictine, developed a mantra (rhythmic
prayer) recommended by the World Community for Christian Meditation in which a
single word is used – Maranatha (Come,
Lord) for example. Again, using the
breath one silently prays:
Ma-ra
… na-tha
A 19th cent. Russian
pilgrim, wanting to grow in prayer, was initiated into the practice of what’s
known as the ‘Jesus Prayer’. There are several versions of this, but
essentially as you inhale, say:
Jesus
Christ, Son of God;
then:
have
mercy on me, a sinner.
The prayer starts on the lips but
needs to descend into the heart where it becomes united with its beat.
Sometimes I use this mantra:
Sacred
Heart of Jesus … have mercy on me.
Gently pray this 10 times then
rest in the presence of God’s merciful Heart. Then repeat the process for 10
minutes. All these forms of prayer have three clear purposes. They:
- place the mind in the heart;
- open the heart to God;
- offer a means to deal with distracting thoughts.
Knowing that we are enfolded in
the heart of God, that we’re abiding in him (John
15.4) means that, rather than ‘saying’ lots of prayers, we’re to let go of
the conscious ‘praying self’ and simply allow ourselves to become part of the
great ocean of divine Love. And when the conscious self does intrude with its
nagging commentary on life, to put it gently behind us where it’s out of our
sight.’
MAYBE GOD IS SILENT, but that is
the silence of God who is as Light hidden behind a dark cloud, love seen in
crucifixion and peace which passes all understanding. ‘God’ St Teresa of Calcutta, ‘is the friend
of silence. See how nature - trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the
stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence...
We need silence to be able to
touch souls.’
For
God alone my soul in silence waits;
truly
my hope is in him.
He
alone is my rock and my salvation;
my
stronghold, so that I shall not be shaken.
In
God is my safety and my honour;
God is my strong
rock and my refugee.
Put your trust
in him always, O my people;
pour
out your hearts before him,
for
God is our refuge. (Ps.
62:6-9)
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