In our search for meaning we may not have any clearly defined concept of the symbol “God.” I don’t think that matters. As T S Eliot has said “the meaning is in the waiting.”
It’s not that God is dead, but the older we become, greater is the depth of his mystery. It becomes all the more important to spend time in silent prayer which is waiting upon God.
“Prayer is like watching for the kingfisher,” writes the poet Ann Lewin.
- Prayer is like watching for
- The kingfisher. All you can do is
- Be there where he is like to appear, and
- Wait.
- Often nothing much happens;
- There is space, silence and
- Expectancy.
- No visible signs, only the
- Knowledge that he’s been there
- And may come again.
- Seeing or not seeing cease to matter,
- You have been prepared.
- But when you’ve almost stopped
- Expecting it, a flash of brightness
- Gives encouragement.
It’s easy to be caught up in movements of spiritual enthusiasm, but if we’re honest these are often ego trips.
The Holy Spirit requires space and time in our often fragmented existence.
Thomas Merton in one of his letters makes the comment – “Our real journey in life is interior: it is a matter of growth, deepening, and of an even greater surrender to the creative action of love and grace in our hearts.”
Believing or disbelieving isn’t the point. Even to say we don’t know is equally unsatisfactory. Each of us is adrift over a sea of nothingness. It’s akin to being the survivor of a ship wreck drifting on a piece of wood fastened to nothing. We have to trust the current that we are drifting in the right direction. Trust is the operative word.
We must surely be aware of a mystery at the very heart of existence?
As Christians We find ourselves fastened to the Cross, bound in an incomprehensible way to Jesus, fastened to him, but adrift over the abyss. I sometimes wake in the night aware of life’s insecurity and my frailty.
. Each man in his darkness goes towards the light” wrote Victor Hugo.
The life of everyone us has a meaning which escapes him or her. Each of us, despite difficulties, vacillations, and failures moves from a confused darkness towards the peace of the Kingdom.of God. The day shall finally come when, as it is written in the Scriptures, God shall wipe away all tears. Our life appears to be like a novel, but God finds the title.
Twilight and sunset at Hayle.
All Along the Watchtower 
It seems to me that this post is truly about the necessity of Trust which is inextricable from Faith and Hope and longs for Love.
The newborn baby cries when uncomfortable [hungry, cold, wet etc.] but is too young to know that there is a bond between them and another; no idea of what a family is or any concept of the virtues that it seeks. The child in its helplessness cries out in the deep and the dark to express its suffering and bonds [as does an dog or many pets who imprint] on their first contacts that assist the helpless and hopeless plight they find themselves in.
Trust therefore is founded in met expectations of Another over and over again when we are at our most vulnerable. It is the bonds of love, hope and faith that their cries are not going to be ignored forever. Without such a childhood, it is difficult to come to an expression of hope in our lives as grow in maturity.
But it is, as you mention, the darkness or seemingly abandoned state that one finds themselves in where we once again return to this prayer from the very depths of our souls; we have lost control and the ability to do anything for ourselves and our hope and trust is that there is Another Who can hear, has the ability to relieve our suffering and cares enough to do something about it.
To lie on your deathbed without hope or trust is perhaps the saddest aspect to witness in life. For it is in this return to helplessness we had as an infant that we cry out to God and have placed all of our hopes in the benevolence of Another which we do not yet know but were taught from our start in life might be there for us to do that which we cannot do; save us from our pain and suffering.
Not hard to see how important the nuclear family is to a child in this life and why the Church has always extolled the family as the domestic church . . . it is where our latent memories help us awake to possibilities that I doubt we could come to without some very hard work on our part within our imaginations. It is why the contemplatives speak about memory, understanding, imagination, trust, faith, hope and love so much. It is the basis of prayer and our longing to find this Reality that seems to eclipse the reality that we call the world.
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Scoop, – Great response for which many thanks.
Brother Roger, the founder of the Taizé Community wrote this –
“In every man lies a zone of solitude
That no human intimacy can fill:
And there God encounters us.”
Those words by Brother Roger are highly significant.
The Holy Scriptures, the teachings of the Church, and the sacraments can only take us so far. Don’t misunderstand me, they’re vital, but there has to be something more.
The Trappist Monk, Fr Thomas Merton wrote – “Physical solitude, exterior silence and real recollection” are all necessary for us to experience the intimacy of God’s presence, his love.
We don’t all have to become trappist monks, but we do require regular intervals when we are aware of our aloneness and our need to wait on God.
“My soul waits in silence for God only;
From Him is my salvation.
He only is my rock and salvation.
My stronghold; I shall not be greatly shaken.” Psalm 61:1&2.
King David knew what he was about when he composed the psalm.
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He did indeed know of which he spoke, Malcolm. In God’s love He seems to create the solitude [whether physical or not] at pivotal moments in our lives. Then in that silence and recollection which may invade our thoughts in the midst of agony or the loneliness of an hour late in the night permeates our consceiousness. Yes, there is more than the Scriptures, the Church and the Sacraments but they are the homing beacons and the breadcrumbs that God has left to draw us in the night and in the wastelands of desolation. Without these, I wonder how many men would lose their souls in despair?
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Scoop, Amen to that. Yes Homing beacons is the operative word that informs us to stay on track and not to fall into the error of quietism. Grace comes to us through worship and all prayer requires to be anchored in the Body of Christ.
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Indeed so. In the time of New Ageism, the old heresy of Quietism has been rekindled all over the world and sadly by some of our own religious orders.
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