Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Prayer: A Different Kind of Work

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day have come and gone; now we celebrate Christmas season. Some of us keep our trees lit while others take the tree down and pack the lights and ornaments away until next year. But what of the Christ Child? Did we see when he came into our lives this year? Do we still hear his cry?

Our Urban Abbey is a place where I still hear the baby Jesus’ cry. I sit in wonder. I view, pray, listen, and change. I live in a world of work, of doing. I (perhaps too often) only think I am successful when I am busy, moving, working…

This year I saw different kind of work, the work of prayer. I, along with several other Urban Abbey members viewed the BBC film The Monastery, based on life in Worth Abbey in the United Kingdom. During our Thanksgiving travels, Patty and I spent a night in the guesthouse at Saint Mary’s Monastery in Petersham, Massachusetts. Last night I finally watched Into Great Silence, a movie about the Grande Chartreuse, which, according to the movie web site, “is considered one of the world’s most ascetic monasteries”. All three of these experiences revolve around groups of people who have chosen prayer as their life’s work. While I strive to fit prayer in as I perform my many chores, these folks strive to fit their chores into a life of prayer. What strikes me most is not how little prayer I fit in, but how wonderful it is to find communities where the work IS prayer. These are deep resources in our world, reminding me to take time to sit and listen, to kneel and pray…

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