Adoration

With our friend, Sue, Marsha and I have been planning the Christmas Eve semi-programmed worship which follows the meeting’s annual bbq. In one of our conversations, I remembered a short essay by Thomas Kelly, Room for the Infinite, which appears in his The Eternal Promise, the sequel to Testament of Devotion. What moves me in this meditation is the reminder that, when shorn of all its contemporary trappings, the emergence of life is an awesome event when experienced against the void of the infinite.

“Chinese landscape paintings frequently puzzle Western observers. They seem to be so bare, so simple. A jutting crag, a tumbling waterfall, a brook flowing out of illimitable distance, a moving tree overhanging the brook. And between and around the objects lie vast spaces, unbroken stretches of uniform background out from which these few powerful hills, or swinging brooks, or rhythm-filled trees projects.

“Such painting carries the universe in its bosom. It sets forth the Infinite, the Everlasting Background and Source of all things, and shows us the infinite particulars as outjutting revelations of Itself.  There is no disconnection; the finite is a fragmentary disclosure of the Infinite, a rhythm-filled continuation of that unspeakably full Life which gives it birth.”

Kelly goes on to draw the analogy with meeting for worship.

“The open spaces are the analogue of the silence in a meeting for worship. Too full for articulate expression, the glory and fullness of the Infinite can only be portrayed by the unbroken silence. Unhurried, unharried, we feel our way back to the world’s Mother, as the child feels its way to its parent’s arms.

“Yet again and again from out that background emerge words, outthrusts of the Divine Life. A few sentences uttered in time yet pronounced from Eternity: a daily matter is set in cosmic frame. Resumption of silence is but the continuation of silence; unbroken space extends behind crag and cascade and river.”

The word that arises for me in this meditation is ‘adoration’ and I wonder how far I have strayed from allowing that felt sense of wonder. It requires a stark landscape to be brought to that place and its requires perspective, just as that boat provided that point of reference as we gazed on the Tasman Glacier (see earlier blog entry).

I remember being at the St. Raphaela Retreat Center in Philadelphia where the sisters have a daily practice of adoration through the icon of Mary and the Christ-child. Going back to their website, here is what they say.

“The Eucharist is at the heart of our life and mission . . . It pulsates through everything we are and do.

“Eucharist is celebrated regularly in our beautiful, octagonal chapel, with its huge windows that afford a wonderful panoramic view of our grounds and the flora and fauna that inhabit them. It provides the space for a truly cosmic liturgy. The Eucharistic celebration is prolonged during the day by exposition of the Blessed Sacrament in the chapel and by our ministry of hospitality. Retreatants are welcome to spend time in Eucharistic adoration.

“At the same time, a Eucharistic spirituality informs all that happens here, from the warm breath of inclusion that embraces “all God’s children, wherever they may be,” to being bread that is broken and wine that is poured out for all who come to the Center. It permeates our concern for the whole person of our retreatants, body, mind, and spirit, and our outreach to the less privileged of society.”

Music, of course, can bring us into this same frame of mind. For the past year I have been enchanted by this performance of Simeon ten Holt’s Canto Ostinato and the simple art of pebble and twig that accompanies the music. The artist is Sharon Nowlan. Warning: do not start this unless you have an hour to spare because it will capture you and lead you into the cosmos.

As a Friend, I sometimes miss the use of icons. If I only experience the plainness of our meetings for worship, I lose perspective. The muscle of adoration becomes weak and flabby. I forget to do my part in adoring the words offered. So the Christ-child in the manger, the boat in the lake, the music, the simple art, each gives me perspective in their own right and offers a door in so I may fully participate in the expectant silence of meeting for worship.

So this will be the Word for this semi-programmed meeting for worship tomorrow evening. Lessons from being an observer of this stark brush-stroke that life paints on the back drop of the infinite. We will intersperse the lessons with carols sung by our Quaker Quire, which in itself is another miracle emerging here among Mt. Eden Friends.