Monks' Corner for February
Diocesan Press Service. December 5, 1974 [74346]
Article No. 1 (Suggested for February Issues)
PRAYER AND PRESENCE
by Sydney J. Atkinson, O.H.C.
Let us take as our picture the Wedding Feast in Cana of Galilee. This is a familiar story from our Lord's life but maybe you want to read it over first. It is at John 2:1-11.
A Jewish Wedding Feast was a great occasion. All the relatives and friends of both families would be there. It went on for a week: seven whole days! Needless to say, there would be strains and tensions in the culinary department. We do not know just when this happened, but some time during the proceedings they found they were running short of wine. St. John tells us that "the mother of Jesus was there," as if she were taking an active part in the event. Most likely, along with many of the other women, she would be busy in the kitchen.
Can't you just visualize the situation if it happened to one of us? Mother would come running out of the kitchen wringing her hands on a damp towel. "Oh, my son, " she would say, "What a mess we are in; they're running out of champagne! Goodness, they will never be able to lift their heads up again in this neighbourhood -- and with all these important visitors present! Oh, maybe we can do something to help. There is that cask half full of wine on our back porch in Nazareth . . . . . if you would send Philip and Nathanael over there quickly. And the tavern keeper here in Cana has always been most obliging ..... maybe if you send Peter and John over there at once we can buy some of his stock. Etc. "
Fuss, fuss, fuss!
And yet, isn't this often the way we pray to God? We have a need and we tell him how, when and where we want it done. We not only offer Him our prayer, we give Him all the rubrics as well!
How different is Our Lady's way. She simply comes to her Son and says, "They have no wine." This is the best little prayer of petition I know of. Simply present the need -- AND THEN LEAVE IT TO GOD.
And do you remember the response of the servants when St. Mary tells them to do whatever Jesus says ? He asked them to fill up the water pots with water. Can't you see the wonder in their eyes? Water ! What they want is wine. But they do what he says and fill them up to the brim! There is a good word for our spiritual vocabulary -- BRIMFUL. What our responses to God should be like. Think of how He can work with us when we respond brimfully !
We know the rest of the story: how the water-made-wine was carried to the governor of the feast and he commended the young bridegroom for keeping the good wine to the end. But we miss the whole point if we get ourselves bogged down in the mechanics of the miracle; how did it happen?
Well, the main factor in the whole story is in the first sentence: "Jesus also was invited to the marriage, with his disciples." This is what made this wedding famous throughout all time: Jesus was invited. And notice it was to a wedding. So often we invited God only to Churches, hospitals or funeral parlors. Let us invite Him to all our activities: our glad times as well as our sad times; to our homes, offices, factories, schools, playgrounds, and so on. This will add a new dimension to our experiences that we never dreamed of. This will change the ordinary water of everyday living into the sparkling wine of new life.
Article No. 2 ( Suggested for February issues )
OFFICE OF THE DEAD
by the Rev. Lincoln Taylor, O.H.C.
A part of the rich round of monastic prayer is the Office of the Dead*, when the choir chants and prays on behalf of the brethren and others who have finished their course in this life, and are hopefully going from " strength to strength in the life of perfect service " in the next choir of the Church. We begin the morning prayers with the words: "The King unto whom all live * O come let us adore him. Come let us sing to the Lord * Let us shout for joy to the rock of our salvation. "
The Churchmen of some former centuries read into the experience of death such a terrifying spectacle of judgment that the color drained out of the Liturgy until it became solid severe black. The stubborn adherence of the prayer on the lips of the Church, however, was not so easily elbowed aside. The ancient solemn joy has persisted. The song is still there.
No matter how we aspire to be emancipated from the limitations of our fleshly adverbs of space and direction when we venture into the realm of the spirit, they persist and are not easily elbowed aside. Hence, so very often our attention to the Dead still tries to focus on the down, beneath, dark, areas of reality, simply because our physical senses last saw them hidden like seeds in the ground under our feet. Only by a conscious effort can most of us turn our inner gaze up, up through earthly veils and clouds, into the stabbing brilliance of "light perpetual" and to the "larger sort of space " as Lewis in GREAT DIVORCE spoke of it, "which made the Solar System seem an indoor affair. "
The monk caught up in the tones of the Office of the Dead, finds plenty of light and room for outright rejoicing on behalf of the Departed.
"The King unto whom all live * O come let us adore him. "
* The Office of the Dead is a prayer service used on the occasion of a death. The service is one of praise, thanksgiving, and intercession using psalms, scripture, and hymns.