One of the surprise TV successes of last year was The Monastery. This series followed five ordinary men who left their everyday lives in the world, to go and live in a monastery for 40 days, sharing in the monks’ routine of prayer and work. The experience had a profound effect on both the men and their hosts. The monastic community at Worth Abbey were encouraged and renewed by discovering that they had something very worthwhile to offer, while the five men taking part in this retreat also felt that they were changed in significant ways. For at least one, there was a spiritual awakening which eventually led to a change in lifestyle, while for others it meant a different kind of growth in self-knowledge, and attitudes to life and relationships.
Why should anyone find this surprising? These men’s forty days in the monastery provided evidence that if you make space for God in your life - even if you don’t particularly believe, or aren’t sure there is a God - something extraordinary is going to happen.
In August many people take their holidays, particularly families with young children. It’s good to remember then, that the word holiday has its origin in “holy-day”: a day set apart to be that kind of space for God. Even nowadays, when most people are not regular churchgoers, a large number of holiday-makers enjoy visits to cathedrals, churches, ruined abbeys and other holy places. There is something about these oases of peace which attracts people who spend most of their time amidst the busyness of the modern world, and is very refreshing. People value these places because there you can catch a real sense of the numinous: an invisible, spiritual reality which speaks to us of God, or of ultimate purpose. There is a stillness in this experience which we may perceive as beauty, awe, peace or comfort, but also as question, invitation, challenge or inspiration. God’s presence doesn’t always confirm us in the way we have always been, and allow us to rest complacently there. It will more often stir us up and change us and our lives for ever.
These holy visits, or encounters with the numinous, can be made even more special by approaching them in a deliberate way. Instead of just enjoying the peace and beauty, we can light a candle, say a prayer, buy not a souvenir but some more meaningful object to take back to our regular lives as a reminder of the moment. Other people have been moved to make a retreat of their own, so much so that many communities and retreat houses have been overwhelmed by enquiries. (You can find out more from The Retreat Association, The Central Hall, 256 Bermondsey Road, London SE1 3UJ.)
And then, of course, there are countless ways in which you can make time for God in your daily life, wherever and whoever you are. First of all, that’s what Sundays are for. The principle of the sabbath is God’s way of helping us to build that time into our schedule: by blocking out the time in our diaries as a matter of course, with this as with everything else, it is much easier to make sure it happens. Getting into your head that going to church is what you do on a Sunday, is much more likely to get you there, than waking up each Sunday morning and facing a new decision, “Church today? Or not?”
But weekly time for God, however vital, is only a step in the right direction. If we are serious about making time for God, we will do it daily. Many people begin or end the day with a “Quiet Time” for prayer, which can include Bible reading, notes to help them with their reading (obtainable from St Andrew’s Bookshop in St Clements, and elsewhere), or other set forms of prayer. Others find time in the middle of the morning, or perhaps on their lunch-break when it may be possible to slip into an open church building - if you can find one near where you work - to enjoy a few minutes of quiet. A regular pattern is best, but snatching whatever moments you can is better than nothing at all.
One of the sad things about many people’s view of the Church today, is that they do not expect it, or the faith it teaches, to have much to do with the deeper spirituality which so many people are looking for. I recently heard of a Buddhist who attended a Christian contemplative prayer meeting and expressed his surprise: “I never knew Christianity was such a spiritual religion.” It is. The teaching and the resources are there: try them and see. If there are any issues here you would like to find out more about, I would love to hear from you.
Published in the Marston Times, August 2006