Tag: Prayer

See, amid the winter’s snow

This photograph of Winter at Tarns Hows, in the Lake District, was taken by my friend Gill Henwood. It immediately brought to mind the Carol, See, Amid the winter’s snow. A reminder, too, that as the secular world packs away the Christmas decorations, Christians continue to celebrate the Christmas season, which, like Lent lasts for 40 days and comes to a conclusion on the Feast of Candlemass – February 2nd.
I offer this Carol as a continued meditation on the joy of the birth of Jesus, and the photo of God’s incredible brushtrokes as the snow dusts the wonders of nature. Long ago I climbed up to the summit of Helvellyn and saw this view from the other direction though not in winter . The breathtaking beauty is captured in the stillness around the Tarn and the movement of the clouds. For me it becomes an illustration, therefore, of the importance of balancing our activity with stillness.

For many this time of lockdown has provided opportunities, for those so minded and are able, to spend time in quietness and be reminded that we are not required to always be on the go. Indeed, that would be harmful. The psalmist wrote in Psalm 46, Be still and know that I am God. Those battling to nurse and care for patients in hospital, Covid sufferers and those with other life-threatening illnesses, cannot be still, nor those who are caring for people at home. So the call to stillness for those free to sit within it is a call to pray and be still on behalf of others. Prayer is never a last resort in any situation, it is always the first resort. We can do a mighty work just holding people in love to God.

I once questioned a nun about those in her community who were living the life of hermits in Wales. I had the temerity to say that they had it easy. They were free to pray as they wished. In the non-fierce ways that nuns have, she begged to differ! “The hermits are in the front-line of the battle against the demonic and all that is evil and which afflicts the life of our world. We hold them in love to God as they battle against darkness on our behalf.” I remember what she told me almost word for word!
Those of us who are able to do the same are doing a great and vital ministry ministry.

May the photo above help us to see what that ministry is. Stillness and contemplation of God together with activity on His behalf in loving others in prayer on His behalf. Especially those whose lives are very dark and very fearful right now.

1 See, amid the winter’s snow,
born for us on earth below,
see the tender Lamb appears,
promised from eternal years.

Refrain:
Hail! Thou ever-blessed morn!
Hail, redemption’s happy dawn!
Sing through all Jerusalem,
“Christ is born in Bethlehem.”

2 Lo, within a manger lies
He who built the starry skies;
He, who throned in height sublime,
sits amid the cherubim! [Refrain]

3 Say, ye holy shepherds, say,
what your joyful news today;
wherefore have ye left your sheep
on the lonely mountain steep? [Refrain]

4 “As we watched at dead of night,
lo, we saw a wondrous light;
angels singing ‘Peace on earth’
told us of the Savior’s birth.” [Refrain]

5 Sacred Infant, all divine,
what a tender love was Thine;
thus to come from highest bliss
down to such a world as this! [Refrain]

6 Teach, O teach us, Holy Child,
by Thy face so meek and mild,
teach us to resemble Thee
in Thy sweet humility! [Refrain]

[Mr G]

Give me a candle of the Spirit

This prayer by George Appleton is inspiring a short series of Advent meditations at St. Mary-at-Latton in Harlow.

The prayers of George Appleton are probably not so well-known these days but deserve to be rediscovered.

He was Archbishop of Perth and of Jerusalem after a varied and long ministry which included Burma during the war and Rector of St. Botolph’s Aldgate. The main thrust of his ministry was Mission but he will be best remembered by many as a ‘shaper of souls’ who, through his writings and particularly, his prayers, touched peoples’ hearts of faith and enriched their spirituality, including mine.

God is very near – Teresa of Avila

Today, October 15th, the Church keeps the feast-day of one of my favourite saints – Teresa of Avila.  She was often referred to as God’s Gadbout because she spent a lot of her energy in founding convents of nuns throughout Spain in the 16th century.  She was forever on the move and yet she is remembered best for her teaching about Prayer and particularly about Contemplative prayer which requires stillness.  No matter how busy she was – and she was very busy – she made sure her heart was constantly fixed on God, whom she referred to as Your Majesty.  God for her was very near.  Indeed she coined a famous phrase – ‘God walks among the pots and pans’  We find God in the ordinariness of life, and if we train ourselves to recognize that, we shall meet Him in the everyday events of our lives and in the people we meet.  This is about finding Heaven in Ordinary.

Teresa believed that God was within us as well as beside us, and here she took up our Lord’s own teaching that the Kingdom of God is within us.  We encounter Him in the silent depths of our hearts.

You know that God is everywhere, she says, which is a great truth; wherever God dwells there is heaven, and you may feel sure that all which is glorious is near His Majesty.

Then she refers to St Augustine who sought God in many places and at last found the Almighty within himself.  We don’t need to go to heaven to find God, she says, We are not forced to take wings to find Him, but have only to seek solitude and to look within ourselves.

She calls this seeking God in solitude within ourselves the prayer of Recollection – or Contemplation.  In her work, Interior Castle, she develops this using the imagery of a King in his Palace.

Let us realize that we have within us a most splendid palace built entirely of gold and precious stones – in short, one that is fit for such a Lord – and that we are partly responsible for the condition of this building, because there is no structure so beautiful as the soul full of pure virtues, and the more perfect these virtues are, the more brilliantly do the jewels shine

What we find in this Palace is the mighty King who, she says,  has deigned to become your Father and Who is seated on a throne of precious value, by which I mean your heart.

Realizing this took her quite a while.

Had I understood always, as I do now, that so great a King resided in my soul I should not have left Him alone so often, but should have stayed with Him sometimes and not kept His dwelling place in such disorder.

For Teresa, then, it is when we enter into silence and spend a little time with God in our hearts that the soul makes progress in the prayer.  God becomes the centre of our being, always to be found when we still the voices of the world that claim so much of our attention.

Teresa says that it is only through silence that we can encounter the love of God and receive it into our hearts.  God is very near.  We should seek him within.

A Prayer of St Teresa
(often known as Teresa’s bookmark.
It was found in her prayer book after her death)

Let nothing disturb you.
Let nothing frighten you.
All things are passing;
God only is changeless.
Patience gains all things.
Who has God wants nothing.
God alone suffices.