Just this week I encountered two references to a line from T.S. Eliot's Burnt Norton*: "At the still point of the turning world" and it got me thinking.
It was Father John Paul who first brought it up during our day of recollection Sunday past, in response to a question from the group if we began each meeting by breaking the Word, would that not drag on our church meetings even more interminably?
He reminded us that we (the group) were all here because of God. If we never lost sight of that every time we met, and we invited Jesus into the homes of our hearts before we began a meeting on practicalities and logistics, then things would move along smoothly and quickly. Thus we need to come to the still point in order to move forward at an inspired pace.
The second reference came from a source book in a section on symbols, namely mandalas. Mandala is a Sanskrit word which means circle and represents wholeness and organic oneness. In Christian symbolism the Eucharist can be seen as a mandala with Christ as the source of life.
Labyrinths are a form of mandalas.
Both references are a reminder that the still point is to come back to the source and centre of our beings by stepping outside of our time to be with God.
Ancient Greeks had two words for time: chronos which refers to chronological time, and kairos which refers to the right, opportune or supreme moment where something special happens. The something special Christians see as "the appointed time in the purpose of God".
I see the still point as a kairos opportunity, an opportunity to have a moment of grace, of greatness in the context of a normal day.
And I am reminded of the value of the still point...
...to hear the music and go to where "the dance is".
* http://www.tristan.icom43.net/quartets/norton.html
It was Father John Paul who first brought it up during our day of recollection Sunday past, in response to a question from the group if we began each meeting by breaking the Word, would that not drag on our church meetings even more interminably?
He reminded us that we (the group) were all here because of God. If we never lost sight of that every time we met, and we invited Jesus into the homes of our hearts before we began a meeting on practicalities and logistics, then things would move along smoothly and quickly. Thus we need to come to the still point in order to move forward at an inspired pace.
The second reference came from a source book in a section on symbols, namely mandalas. Mandala is a Sanskrit word which means circle and represents wholeness and organic oneness. In Christian symbolism the Eucharist can be seen as a mandala with Christ as the source of life.
Labyrinths are a form of mandalas.
Both references are a reminder that the still point is to come back to the source and centre of our beings by stepping outside of our time to be with God.
Ancient Greeks had two words for time: chronos which refers to chronological time, and kairos which refers to the right, opportune or supreme moment where something special happens. The something special Christians see as "the appointed time in the purpose of God".
I see the still point as a kairos opportunity, an opportunity to have a moment of grace, of greatness in the context of a normal day.
And I am reminded of the value of the still point...
...to hear the music and go to where "the dance is".
* http://www.tristan.icom43.net/quartets/norton.html
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