Church-bells beyond the stars heard...........

I remember a discussion in which several said that we found it quite difficult not to drift off to sleep during prayer time. Our college Principal, who was also part of the discussion, seemed to be rather less serious about it. ‘How good to fall asleep with Jesus on your heart’, he said?
A college Tutor, on reading a carefully prepared essay, which laid out what was important and necessary (and complicated) in the spiritual life. ‘Necessary !… Essential !… What did you learn in Sunday school? Little children know what is necessary in a way that their elders do not. It might be so!
Jesus appeared to have a shrewd idea as to how you might get and keep God’s mind on the issue in hand. You kept after your heart’s desire with persistence. You were to behave like a woman who would not let an unjust judge pass her off; and to wake your neighbour when you unexpectedly want food in the middle of the night. You were to fuss about until you had found your wretched necklace at last. Under no circumstances were you to say that your minor desires were of no significance or that God was far too busy to bother about unimportant things like that. God knows what you need before you even ask.  And God also knows that the prayer is for your sake not his… and it is about importance and significance… and our faithfulness not his. Wittering on is a hallmark of the faithful!
In St John’s Gospel, the disciples of Jesus were asked to meet their risen Lord, in Galilee, as if in the beginning, when the world had seemed young. Who called you? Why did he do that? Who have you been given to pray for?  And who loves you, and cares for you and prays for you?

There are many ways of doing that, From Red notebooks and lists to deep silence and mountain tops. The poet George Herbert (Prayer (1) said they were (all): ‘Church-bells beyond the stars heard, the soul’s blood, the land of spices; something understood’.

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