Holy Saturday 2020

It needs to be stated that there are many recommendations, suggestions and examples of postures, breathing rhythms etc put forward for those wishing to be still and silent.

They are worthy of consideration but each of us is unique and individual.

I sit upright in a strong chair, breathe slowly and sometimes say a mantra, yet I also sit up in bed of a morning and try to be still and focussed there.

Just find the way for yourself to be...to be waiting attentively. 

I recall Rainer Maia Rilke and his comment "the only journey is the one within" and he expands off and on with that theme: "openness, patience, receptivity, solitude is everything" but not the Will necessarily.

His journey inward is underscored when he writes " think of the world you carry within you".

I encourage my own reading and pondering of the sayings and writings of the Masters.

Augustine of Hippo mentioning those who do not allow ' quietness of heart, tranquillity of mind'.  "Stop being so restless. Quieten the uproar of your minds. Let go of the idle fantasies that fly around within". A writer about Augustine notes "we need to be prepared for long periods of silence and quiet, long enough for our doubts to dissolve, our cares to lose their urgent pressure, our uncertainty to give way to trust. To wait in silence for as long as it takes."

Personally, I believe each of us uniquely, individually has his/her way, possibly ever changing and learned over years of practice and patience.

Think of recipes in cookery books. T

The details, ingredients and method of preparation are before you. You can follow instructions exactly or try so to do. You slowly learn your own methods and tastes and quantities of ingredients and length of cooking to achieve a splendid dish. You may change the recipe adding and subtracting but you still have the same end result...a splendid dish.

I would state this which I firmly believe, namely you are found; it is now a matter of you finding.

I will not use the word God as it is too filled with a myriad of interpretations, experiences, images, prejudices and preconceived ideas and too often is an idol.

I will simply say be still and silent and wait attentively and listen.

Let me end with another verse from Giles Dawnay (from his book Breaking):

All of us squinting into the glare, trying

to make sense of shapes.

All of usspending our lives trying to find home,

perhaps as many ways to get there as

pairs of eyes adjusting to the light.