Last week I walked around Queen Mary Gardens at the heart of Regent’s Park for Nazareth Contemplative prayer. As I pressed ‘Go Live’ on SMITF Facebook at 8am the heavens opened and I got completely drenched! The rain, however, was warm and refreshing and it only seemed to sharpen the colours of the magnificent rose garden and flowerbeds there. On the walk I made six simple observations about silent prayer:

  1. The most important thing that matters is the state of the heart before God, rather than any techniques used – we are always beginners on this path.
  2. Each of us can find in silence the gift of ‘an ever-faithful companion-presence. Something that is always with us’. In silence we return to our natural habitat.
  3. We do not enter the realm of silence for ourselves and for simply what we can get out of it. This limited view is like getting to the door of the cathedral and thinking that is the whole of the experience.
  4. Silence keeps us intimately bound with the truth of our being.
  5. Silence is at the heart of relating.
  6. Meditation is an act of love.

Each of these simple observations is explored in more depth, aided by the wonders of creation encountered on the path. I leave you with a poem called Clearing by Martha Postlethwaite:
Do not try to serve the whole world or do anything grandiose.
Instead, create a clearing in the dense forest of your life and wait there patiently,
until the song that is yours alone to sing falls into your open cupped hands
and you recognize and greet it.
Only then will you know how to give yourself to the world so worthy of rescue.

Revd Catherine Duce