REFLECTION FOR MARCH 2012

MEDITATION IN LENT: WE ARE NOT ALONE.

In 2010 a close friend gave me a copy of James Roose-Evans book, FINDING SILENCE - 52 Meditations for Daily Living. The author, an Anglican priest, is a distinguished theatre director and the writer of many books. His home is in Wales. This book grows out of the work of a group he leads in London which meets regularly for meditation. It is one of many hundreds of such groups today, gathering in one another’s houses, transcending all differences of religion, colour, race and gender, as people increasingly seek a deeper meaning to their lives. For years, many Christians regarded any form of meditation as suspicious, but we are now awakening to its great strengths for the human spirit. My own conviction is that meditation can help us all to be more aware of God’s world around us, and within the uncertainties of our time, to live out each day with a degree of hopefulness and serenity.

In these weeks of Lent, I would like to share part of one his meditations. In the last months I have had many messages from people telling with me that they find their journey through life quite a lonely one. Most of us experience loneliness at some point in our life.  I know that since I lost my soul-mate Dorothy, eleven years ago, loneliness has been a companion - sometimes lurking in the shadows and at other times embracing me with force. ( Which is quite different from a strong hug!). In Lent we have time to pause and look at our lives. It may be a time when we are confronted by loneliness and inner fears in fresh ways. Often disturbing ways.  Roose-Evans in what follows speaks of both inner fear and loneliness. But he also reminds us of another reality in which I believe – that we are not travelling alone.

+++++ I count myself fortunate, strange though it may sound, that in my early seventies I had cancer of the thyroid. I was on my own at the time, as my partner was overseas. The fear was almost suffocating and yet I was glad to be on my own to deal with it. It was then that I learned, as the German poet Friedrich Holderlin expresses it that  ‘ where danger is, grows also the rescuing power.’ One night, at the peak of my fear, I awoke to hear an interior voice saying, ‘You are not alone. You have an angel working alongside you.’ From that moment the fear began to subside so that when I went in for the four-hour operation, not knowing whether I would be able to speak when I came out of it, for the vocal organs are perilously close to the thyroid, I was entirely without fear.

Who is to explain the origin of that voice? It is possible that it came from the unconscious, that repository of wisdom that lies beyond the intellect; but I do not discount that there may be angelic powers. In the Celtic tradition there is a strong sense that each of us has an invisible companion who walks the road of life with us, and one of the poverties of modern life is the loss of belief in such presences. The late John 0’Donohue, in Eternal Echoes, wrote of the Christian tradition which says that when we are sent here on earth a special angel is sent to accompany our every step, breath, thought and feeling. This is how he put it. ‘This is your guardian angel, who is right beside you, as near as your skin. You are not on your own. If you could see your path with the eyes of your soul, you would find that a luminous path and that there are two of you walking together. When loneliness or helplessness overcomes you, it is time to call on your angel for help and courage.’ It was only long after that I came across his book and when I reflected on the whole experience, I was moved to find those same words: You are not alone.++++

It is in the Garden of Gethsemane that Jesus confronted his own fear and loneliness and was comforted by an angel. It was in this garden that he was deserted by his closest friends who fell asleep, and it was here that he was betrayed. And it is sometimes when we feel overwhelmed by life that we too are comforted, not by another person but by an inner voice reminding us that we are held in God’s love.

For my own part I don’t think I will ever buy an angel to stick on my fridge door, although if you have one there don’t move it! But during the years I had the privilege of living on the island of Iona, I often thought about angels and about St Columba’s relationship with them. And it is a fact that in the Celtic church, the place of angels was important. These angels were guardians of the spirit, of the soul. The ones who guide our lives into good paths.

I know that someone, somewhere in the world reading this reflection will be feeling lonely, but I invite you to be still for a few moments and think about the beautiful words of the poet Johann Holderlin -  ‘ where danger is, grows also the rescuing power.’ That rescuing power could be an angel. One who watches over us in good times and in difficult times. A companion on the often rocky road of life, and one who understands.

Lord of each new day

you who knew loneliness

break into my loneliness

in ways that surprise me,

and just sometimes

let me hear

an angel’s

voice - or whisper!

*The book Finding Silence by James Roose-Evans, published by The History Press is available from Amazon. The ISBN no is 978 - 0 - 7524 – 5405 - 4 

 As we approach Easter which has such significance in the Christian tradition may we  continue to remember the many thousands of children, women and men of all faiths who are suffering so much on a daily basis in various parts of the world.  We mourn with those who have seen their loved ones brutally killed, and we think of those who occupy places of great power and who believe that their way of understanding the world is right.

     True to your word, you let me catch my breath and send me in the right direction.

                                                                                             - from a modern translation of Psalm 23.