Increasingly, time pressures crowd out the leisurely pace that prayer seems to require. Communication with other people keeps getting shorter and more cryptic: text messages, email, instant messaging. We have less and less time for conversation, let alone contemplation. We have the constant sensation of not enough: not enough time, not enough rest, not enough exercise, not enough leisure. Where does God fit into a life that already seems behind schedule?
May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.
"Prayer should be brief and pure, unless it happen to be lengthened by an impulse or inspiration of divine grace."
from the Rule of St Benedict
Here are some thoughts on one of my favourite prayers: Church Times - Prayer for the week.
I had the great pleasure this morning of talking to Aled Jones on the Radio. I'm happy to find that he is as charming in real life as he seems in the public eye. We chatted about this and that, and then I got to say a few words about faith. This is (approximately) what I said:
We need certain things to survive - food, shelter, warmth. But we need something more than this to flourish as human beings - we need a dream, a sense of purpose. Of course, our dreams need to shift as we get closer to them - if your dream has already come true, it's time to get a new one!
I think that this is mostly what we mean when we speak of God. To catch a glimpse of God is to know that there is something bigger than ourselves - something, or someone, beyond the horizon.
Sir Francis Drake, the first person to circumnavigate the globe, once prayed for bigger dreams. This is part of his prayer:
Disturb us, Lord,
when we are too well pleased with ourselves;
when our dreams have come true because we dreamed too little;
When we arrive safely because we sailed too close to the shore.
Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly -
to venture on wider seas where storms will show your mastery;
where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars.
John Davies on top form in Third Way this month. Challenging the seductive idea that we need to rebel against ordinariness and seek the extraordinary - in life and in faith - he looks at how, if we take the time to read the ordinary, the local, the unremarkable, there are riches of life to be found there. The link to a downloadable pdf of his article is on Urblog.
He finds me when I am not looking,
the soft footstep at the threshold of my senses
an embrace of apple blossoms humming with bees,
murmuring all languages that have ever been spoken
Oh quickened tongue made of light and earth,
voice of star and root, wave and leaf
He comes to me when I am not seeing,
the honey glow of light from behind the door
Here is the expectant coil of green beneath the snow,
beneath the burn, beneath the stone
Here is warm and sun on skin again after night,
after grief, after sorrow
from The Wicker Chronicles
"The best prayer is the one in which there is the most love. Adoration, wordless admiration, that is the most eloquent form of prayer: that wordless admiration which contains the most passionate declaration of love."
Charles de Foucauld
a friend sent me this motto today:
Pray for the best
Prepare for the worst
Whenever I get anxious, I sit myself down and say "What's the worst that could happen?" Often the worst imaginable, even though it's unpleasant, I know I could still survive, still deal with it somehow. And I know very well that most of the time what happens is not the worst. Ergo - I can cope. It will be alright.
Today I'm thinking the opposite - "What's the best that could happen?" Maybe the best won't happen either. But you never know your luck.
This is a prayer from W.A.T.C.H. It goes on to pray that women will not go on being excluded from the Episcopate...
Creator God -
made in your image
may women stand tall and speak up,
shedding their history of holding back.
Word incarnate -
as prophets and priests
may women speak truths about their lives,
with gentleness and persistence.
Untamed Spirit -
released from being ‘good’,
may women discover you
in all their caring
and daring.
A friend sent me this prayer. I love the line in the middle - "I have not yet done that for which I was made." The tenor of our society seems to be that the best days of your life are pretty much over once you hit 30, and thereafter everything will be a little duller, a little less exciting, a little less important. I like the idea that even when the bones creak a little, you're still only in preparation for your task in life. I have been contemplating lately what direction I might go in a few years' time, in order to focus what I'm doing right now. It feels good to me to think bigger, to be a learner not an expert, to be on an adventure and not settled down in boring comfort for the second half of life.
O Lord my God
teach my heart
where and how to seek you,
where and how to find you.
O Lord you are my God
and you are my Lord
and I have never seen you.
You have made me and remade me,
and you have bestowed on me all the good things I possess
and still I do not know you.
I have not yet done that for which I was made.
Teach me to seek you
for I cannot seek you unless you teach me
or find you unless you show yourself to me.
Let me seek you in my desire,
let me desire you in my seeking.
Let me find you by loving you,
let me love you when I find you.
St Anselm
We will be observing the two minute silence in Robinson Chapel at noon.
Gather from 11.55 am. We will close with some short prayers.
O God, you know we are often filled with fear and foreboding.
Give us courage and deepen our trust.
You are a rock which nothing can shatter.
On you we can place the whole weight of our lives.
Richard Harries, Bishop of Oxford
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