IT IS MOST GRATIFYING, and interesting, to find people coming to Morning Prayer who have no previous connection to Christ Church Cranbrook, or even the Episcopal Church. Could it be that our modest experiment in Benedictine behavior has struck a chord in the hectic lives of people living around us? Could it be that our ultra-suburban life style might generate in us a yearning similar to that felt by the rural parishioners who comprised George Herbert’s flock in the 1630’s who, according to Isaac Walton, biographer of that saintly parson/poet, “let their plow rest when Mr. Herbert’s saints-bell rung to prayers, that they might also offer their devotion to God with him.” *
Christopher Jamison, an English Benedictine Monk, says that “Many of the world’s religions believe there is one simple path that leads us towards God. It’s called silence.”** To most people, silence is nothing more than an interval between noises. Are we discovering, along with Benedictine monks and country parsons of the past, that silence can be “a simple path that leads us toward God?” Or, even more surprising, can the silence call out to passers-by from the spaces between psalm verses?
Jonathan+
*Holy Women, Holy Men, p. 170 **Worth Abbey website
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