Prayer

The Christian message often surprises us by over-turning our expectations.  In John’s Gospel we read the story of the woman at the well. It is Jesus who is in need – he’s the thirsty one. The woman is the one who can help and serve. Yet as she does this she finds new ways of coming close to God through Jesus and, most importantly, she finds that she is known, accepted and loved in the deepest possible way.  We hope that the pattern of this story can be repeated for each of us here in this Parish.

Silent Prayer

 

What are we doing as we meet for Silent Prayer? I cannot answer for others as, by its nature, silent prayer is quite a personal moment.  Speaking for myself, within the 30 minutes we set aside to sit quietly together in church, I usually find this sort of thing happens:

• the opening moments: all kinds of distracting thoughts arise, including a persistent question ‘why am I doing this?’ My intention is to slowly let this internal “noise” subside, not by telling myself that I shouldn’t be so distracted, but by quietly keeping myself ‘in place.’ That is, I am here before God, and I will remain here for a while.

   

• usually, there is a period when I feel at ease in being present. This is not often a sense of profound calm; that is only an occasional gift from God. But rather I am settled in the presence: the presence of God, of others, and of the thousands who have prayed here before. So I need not do, say or think anything, simply being part of the prayer which is ‘being present with God.’

   

• nearly always, a few minutes before the end, I lose the sense of presence and feel strongly ‘this is over: I can go now’ – this feeling is to be resisted. It would be like saying you are going to meet with a friend for an hour but running away 15 minutes early. Even though I have been disconnected from any sense of calm, I stick it out until the close of 30 minutes. It doesn’t matter if I feel bored; rather, what matters is that I remain where I am, with God.

   

• Oddly, as I walk away from such a time of Silent Prayer, I nearly always feel that was not long enough.

   

This may not be the experience of others. If anyone else would like to describe their approach, then we could publish these reflections (possibly anonymously). Yet I remain convinced that each of us could do this. You would be very welcome to join those who pray silently, for, with and on behalf of this parish.

Some more reflections on Silent Prayer - read here