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Week 3 (The second Sunday after Ash Wednesday)
Loving Silence and Solitude
Readings: Psalm 23 & Matthew 4:1-11
Good morning. I am standing-in for Martin today, on this second Sunday after Ash Wednesday, whilst he and Charlotte are taking a well-earned break in the land of sombreros and paella.
Ash Wednesday fell on 18th February this year and marked the beginning of the Lenten season. Lent is a 40-day period of fasting and prayer that emulates Jesus Christ's time in the desert. Lent ends on Maunday Thursday 2nd April. Our current Lent study group is meeting on Wednesdays and is using this time to prepare to celebrate Easter, using Lectio 365 and 24-7 Prayer, with their Lent course title for the week being, ‘The Desert as a Place of Loneliness and Kindness’.
For this Week 3 message, we are specifically looking at the spiritual practice of silence and solitude. Let us pray.
PRAYER – Dear God, help us to find moments of solitude where we can retreat from the demands of the world, and to rest in your presence. May our moments of solitude be filled with your peace, and may they become sacred times where we can hear your voice clearly.
Modern day living tends to be anything but that, with its hectic, fast-paced, media-frenzied culture. However, we have chosen to live in a part of France where it is possible to find peace and solitude. You don’t have to go far from Mirepoix to find the beauty of this region, its countryside, its mountains, its traffic free roads – the easy potential for solitude. Indeed, it is for these very reasons that my wife Theresa (you know her by her medieval wench’s name of Tess), and I chose to emigrate to France – the warmer weather too, of course.
But let’s be realistic here, there isn’t much in the way of deserts in these parts, is there? So, we must adapt our thinking to what is available to us here, whilst remembering the terrain of the Holy Lands where the early Christians dwelt.
We see in the example of Jesus, who "often withdrew to lonely places and prayed" (Luke 5:16), that this practice has an important role to play in our own spiritual formation. Jesus prayed in solitude all the time throughout the Gospels; this alone is enough to suggest that, if we don’t already, we ought to try it! So often, we read in the gospels about when Jesus prays with particular fervency when he is making big decisions regarding his mission, seeking direction from his Father.
Our first reading, the well-known, and beautiful, Psalm 23, read to us by Briget, to me, encompasses all aspects of my faith in Jesus. The Lord is MY shepherd, not THE shepherd. A psalm that is perfect for times of solitude and calm. Indeed, this psalm of David warrants a sermon in its own right. Perhaps we could do that on another occasion.
We might expect that Jesus would have brought this psalm to mind during his 40 days in the wilderness. This 40-day period is a regular timespan in the Bible. Hadn’t Goliath taunted Saul’s army for 40 days, before he fought David? So too with:
The Flood: Rain fell for 40 days and nights during Noah’s flood (Genesis 7:12).
Moses on Mount Sinai: Moses fasted for 40 days and nights while receiving the Ten Commandments (Exodus 24:18).
The Spies in Canaan: Twelve spies scouted the Promised Land for 40 days (Numbers 13:25).
Elijah’s Journey: Elijah travelled 40 days and nights to Mount Horeb (1 Kings 19:8).
Nineveh's Repentance: Jonah warned that Nineveh would be destroyed in 40 days (Jonah 3:4).
As with our second reading from Matthew 4, read to us by Alan, we see Jesus led into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, for 40 days, battling the forces of evil and emerging from the desert victorious and filled with the Holy Spirit. He faced trials and temptations and managed to withstand it. His resilience did not come from his rugged individuality, but from a deep dependence on the sustaining love and grace of his heavenly Father.
Just as Jesus regularly withdrew to pray alone, we too should seek our own spaces of silence – coming face to face with our creator and embracing the renewal of our hearts and minds, as we offer ourselves completely in prayer.
As I mentioned earlier, our first Lent course meeting featured the first of the ‘Desert Fathers and Mothers’, with the emphasis on the life of St. Anthony of Egypt (not to be confused with St Anthony of Padua, the patron saint of lost things.) The video accompanying the course spoke of St. Anthony, who was born in Egypt in the year AD 251.
He was considered "Christlike" for pioneering Christian monasticism through radical obedience to the Gospel. After hearing Matthew 19:21, ‘If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’ He renounced his wealth, gave to the poor, and embraced a life of solitude, fasting, and spiritual combat in the desert to achieve complete union with God.
He spent twenty years of his life in isolation, where he lived by bread, water and salt only.
We know that the Roman Emperor Constantine, wrote to Anthony, seeking guidance, at a time when Constantine, who reigned from AD 306-337, went on to legalise Christianity with the Edict of Milan in AD 313, and who supported its growth, making Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. St. Anthony was known as ‘The Father of all Monks’. He died at the age of 105, having lived his last years in a monastic community, with other holy men, he being recognised as one of the earliest founders of monastic life.
To put things into perspective, the first comprehensive, single-volume, Christian Bible, containing both Old and New Testaments was compiled around AD 350–400, long after St Anthony. I find it mind-boggling that Anthony, who devoted his life to Jesus, in prayer and solitude, yet he had no Bible to draw from, as we so easily do today.
By St Anthony’s standard, I am no recluse. I seek the peace and quiet of my home, especially spending time in our woodland area, where I can find solitude to talk to God, seeking answers and understanding, to ponder life in general – or simply thinking of nothing at all, a gift that only men possess. Sorry ladies.
I’m not one given to prayers spoken out loud, I have to admit, but I find that peace and solitude are very welcome in my life, as are all of you, my church family here.
Do most people live, in fact, in a world starved of solitude, silence, and privacy: and therefore, starved for meditation and true friendship?
• We live in perhaps the loudest and busiest time in human history.
• Reports suggest that people touch their mobile phones thousands of times each day and many spend hours engaged looking at screens.
• Social media, web browsing, email and text messages are all so easily accessible that some of us find almost no time in the day to be silent, and to disengage from the noise and demands of a chaotic world.
As we think about this, can we now just engage in a moment of silence?
PAUSE
Is silence out of our comfort zone?
Seeking silence and solitude may feel like swimming against the tide of our culture, yet we see from the example of the ‘Desert Fathers and Mothers’, that fighting against the prevailing trends of society is sometimes necessary in our pursuit of life with God.
Silence and solitude are slow and not task orientated. Therefore, it can often feel difficult and unfruitful at first, when we live in a world so driven by immediate results. The goal is to build rhythms where we often detach and practise silence and solitude before God. Given time, these experiences will become easier and more fruitful.
In Psalm 46, verse 10, we are invited to pursue silence and solitude: "Be still and know that I am God!" Franciscan monks referred to this Psalm as the gateway to prayer.
Next week, I will be speaking to you again. It will be on the theme of ‘the desert as a place of self-denial’.
Let me finish with a prayer.
PRAYER: Lord, in a world of hurry and haste, help us to still our souls, quiet our minds, and direct our hearts towards you. In silence we remember that you are God, and that this changes everything. Teach us the unforced, unhurried rhythms of your grace. Amen.
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