Take 5

St James' Episcopal Church, Aberdeen

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Take 5

LENT 2010
When words fail......

There are times when someone tells us something and we are stuck for words. Perhaps they have been given bad news about their health, or someone close to them has died in tragic circumstances and words fail us. We fumble around in our minds for something to say that will comfort them, but words alone cannot console them. It's the same when we hear and see on our TV screens some terrible tragedy, we look at one another and say nothing because there is nothing sensible to say.

I think this is where prayer comes in, and in Lent we should think about the use of prayer and the quality of our prayer life. Long ago I stopped trying to put prayer into words in my head. When I was younger I thought praying to God on my own meant I had to frame words in my mind and sort of send them to God, like some sort of email to the Almighty. Then I read a number of holy people who led me to understand that God already knew what was in our heart and mind and we didn't have to find the right words. God reads our feelings and our thoughts and that is the essence of a life of prayer - you might say it is a kind of meditative prayer.

In the same way that is how God speaks to us, not in words but more feelings - emotions - perhaps in pictures even.

If you have something on your mind that disturbs you, or you meet someone and words fail you, then just think about it or let it move around inside your heart or mind, and you will be praying about it. God will know what you can't put into words.

Thomas Merton, an American monk, wrote of this in his autobiography ‘Elected Silence'. He took himself away to a place where he could just be silent before God. The words didn't matter, he practised the presence of God in the silence. We are not able to do that, but we can use those silent places where we feel near to God. It may be in a church, which is why we try to keep St James' open as, much as possible, so people passing by can just come in and rest in the presence of God. You don't have to search for words, just be quiet and let your heart do the ‘talking'.

So, when words fail you, try just being still and don't struggle for words - God doesn't need them to know what we are trying to say within ourselves. And likewise if we try to console someone who brings bad news, just be still with them and say nothing, they will know you care if that is how you feel about them.
Max