What is the point of looking back to the early saints and the monastic ways, what could they possibly teach us in this modern age? Well quite a lot actually.
During our prayer time last night a few of us shared a discussion starting with this question.
Many felt that our lives are now shaped by corporate agendas and ideas of profit, gain, utility and chasing the new. There is a danger that the value and art of being, of taking time and reflecting will be lost in the rush to get to the next new thing that is bigger, faster and stronger. Will we loose the ability to be attentive and being present to the moment in our busy lives driven by the need to fill time with doing. The ability to look back to times past will often show us what we need to know for the future. Above all the greatest need in our society is the need for meaning. The monastic practices are often about having a rhythm to life and that through this we find meaning, wonder and sometimes the miraculous within the everyday stuff of life. To create space in our lives for this is transformative. Sometimes less really is more. Stopping, taking time, taking stock and looking back can often gives us the truest sense of way ahead.
RH
Meditation for Day 22
Enrich, Lord, heart,
hands , mouth in me
with faith, with hope
and charity,
that I may run, rise,
rest in Thee.
George Herbert – taken from Celtic daily prayer
Celtic Prayer + 