Silent Sunday
Everything is holy
The theme we will explore together today is based on the description given in Acts, that “In God we live and move and have our being.” In other words, wherever we go, whomever we encounter, whatever ground we are standing on, whether beautiful or troubled, we are on holy ground.
Opening music:
When I was a boy, each week
On Sunday, we would go to church
And pay attention to the priest
He would read the holy word
And consecrate the holy bread
And everyone would kneel and bow
Today the only difference is
Everything is holy now
When I was in Sunday school
We would learn about the time
Moses split the sea in two
Jesus made the water wine
And I remember feeling sad
That miracles don’t happen still
But now I can’t keep track
Cause everything’s a miracle
Wine from water is not so small
But an even better magic trick
Is that anything is here at all
So the challenging thing becomes
Not to look for miracles
But finding where there isn’t one
When holy water was rare at best
It barely wet my fingertips
But now I have to hold my breath
Like I’m swimming in a sea of it
It used to be a world half there
Heaven’s second-rate hand-me-down
But I walk it with a reverent air
Cause everything is holy now
Read a questioning child’s face
And say it’s not a testament
That’d be very hard to say
See another new morning come
And say it’s not a sacrament
I tell you that it can’t be done
This morning, outside I stood
And saw a little red-winged bird
Shining like a burning bush
Singing like a scripture verse
It made me want to bow my head
I remember when church let out
How things have changed since then
Everything is holy now
It used to be a world half-there
Heaven’s second-rate hand-me-down
But I walk it with a reverent air
Cause everything is holy now
Time: 10 minutes
Spend some time in silent prayer now (you can choose between a 10 minute timer and a 20 minute timer below, which each have a gong at the beginning and three gongs at the end).
Listen to the following music as an ending to the time of prayer:
Reflection:
Read the following passages through twice or three times, and listen for any word or phrase that seems to be inviting you to linger with it. Spend some time in silence, allowing the Spirit to breathe fresh life into these words.
Reading 1: Exodus 3:1-5
Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.” When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”
And Moses said, “Here I am.”
“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”
Reading 2:
Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
But only they who see, take off their shoes—
The rest sit round it and pick blackberries.
(Adapted from the poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning)
Prayer walk (10 minutes):
Take a slow meditation walk, and open your heart to all that you see, to every place where your foot lands, as holy ground.
As you walk, open your heart to whatever is happening inside, whatever wants to be heard and included, with this same sense of being on holy ground.
You may want to pause from time to time and place your hand on your heart, whatever you may be feeling, and say “Holy, holy” or “This is holy ground”.
Three bows practice:
Bow in gratitude for this beautiful moment, and all that is holy, within and around us
Bow to one another in honour of the full beauty of our humanity
Bow in honour and gratitude for the holy ground that is our country, and in renewed commitment to cooperate with the Holy One to breathe fresh beauty into neglected places
For further reflection:
Below is the poem quoted in the introduction, for you to reflect on further:
The Healing Time, by Pesha Joyce Gertler:
Finally on my way to yes
I bump into all the places
where I said no to my life
all the untended wounds
the red and purple scars …
those coded messages
that send me down the wrong street
again and again…
and I lift them, one by one,
close to my heart
and I say holy,
holy.
Ending prayer:
In the silence before time began, in the quiet of the Womb,
In the stillness of early morning is your beauty.
At the heart of all creation, at the birth of every creature
At the centre of each moment is your splendour.
Rekindle in me the sparks of your beauty,
that I may be part of the splendour of this moment.
Rekindle in me the sparks of your beauty,
that I may be part of the blazing splendour
that burns from the heart of this moment.
Amen
(by J. Philip Newell)
Ending music:
Whichever way you turn
There is the face of God
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Sharon's book that was previously called "Contemplative Living" has been republished by AnamChara Books under the title "Deeper: Finding the Depth Dimension Beneath the Surface of Life". The Kindle version is available from Amazon, and the hard copy version can be ordered from loot.co.za or Takealot, or from your local bookshop through Ingram Distribution.