Well my Friends, we continue our ramble along the highway to heaven which is prayer. Last time we reminded ourselves that there was no right or wrong way, but it was all part of sustaining our relationship with God, and we finished by pondering on this beautiful poem.

PRAYER BY GEORGE HERBERT

Prayer the church’s banquet, angel’s age,

God’s breath in man returning to his birth,

The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,

The Christian plummet sounding heav’n and earth

Engine against th’ Almighty, sinner’s tow’r,

Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear,

The six-days world transposing in an hour,

A kind of tune, which all things hear and fear;

Softness, and peace, and joy, and love, and bliss,

Exalted manna, gladness of the best,

Heaven in ordinary, man well drest,

The milky way, the bird of Paradise,

Church-bells beyond the stars heard, the soul’s blood,

The land of spices; something understood.

It certainly takes some reading, and I am pretty sure you had to go over it a couple of times to try and fathom it out. Did you notice it is just one long extended  sentence. Well not quite a proper sentence because it doesn’t contain a main verb. I think this is indicative of the idea that prayer is continuous, and always a bit unfinished – but I love the fact that it concludes ‘Something understood’. 

When we do our Bibles studies at Calpe, we read a passage of scripture, and then look for the words or phrases that stand out to us, and see what they mean, and how they apply. So let’s do the same with this.

‘Prayer, the church’s banquet’ reminds me of the Eucharist, that great meal of the kingdom in which all participate because those who celebrate it do so on behalf of the whole of creation.
‘Angels age,’ for me is eternity, because angels never die.
‘God’s breath’ take me back to the time in Genesis when God breathed life into Adam, and ‘returning to his birth’ links us will all who have been born.
‘The soul in paraphrase’ is prayer taking the immense content of all we want to say, and putting it in words that we can manage. But sometimes we can’t manage with words, so we pray in tongues, or we sing (whoever sings prays twice) or we dance, or paint or make music, or walk or do whatever we can that does make sense.

‘Heart in pilgrimage’ is one of my favourite phrases, taking whatever is deep within us, and holding it in our souls as we journey close God who is always present.

Prayer is like a ‘Plummet’ which reaches not only the whole world, but heaven too.

‘Engine against th’almighty, sinner’s tower’ are those things that reach right up to the heart of God. How great it is not just the domain of the righteous, but the sinner’s tower gets there too. (Probably first, but no one is counting)

‘Reversed thunder’. Another of my favourite lines.  Prayer is also like a thunderbolt that we capable of firing up towards heaven, reversing the usual direction of thunder. But we can’t lose sight of the idea that it came down first. We get our ability to pray because God takes the initiative and gives us that ability.

‘Christ –side piercing spear’. Suddenly things have taken a dramatic and terrifying turn, our prayers can pierce the heart of Jesus, and this speaks to me of when we pray for what we want rather than what God wants. It must break the heart of Christ when in all our piety and religiosity we use our prayers to try and affirm the injustices in the world. God on my side and all that nonsense.

    Back to joy. ‘The six-days world transposing in an hour,’ Scriptures tell us the creation process took six days, and we bring all of that, our thanks, our awe and wonder, our openness, our desire to take care of creation and our concerns for the world and all that is in it, and our tiny understanding of the universe, and we bring it all to God within the hour. Perhaps another reflection on the meaning of the Eucharist, or a reference to Matins where we pray the Benedicite. (I will add it as a footnote in case you can’t remember it. It is incredible!)

‘A kind of tune’ – I just love this, the Holy Spirit takes our offering and turns it into something beautiful for God – which all should hear and fear. The fear is as in being in awe of  rather than frightened of. All are welcome to take part in prayer. I love that Mother Teresa used to say Do something beautiful for God.

Another change of tone, this time reflecting on our consequences of praying. ‘Softness, and peace, and joy, and love, and bliss’ is what we experience when  we have prayed, or rather allowed the Holy Spirit to pray through us. Things have turned round. Prayer is like the ‘manna’ that comes from heaven, and as we give that gift back to God, all things make sense. ‘Heaven in ordinary’ – that which is divine has come to us in our prayer and produced a gladness which is overwhelming.
‘Man well drest,’ Our response is to offer our best. How could we not?

From here we go back to the grandness of the universe, the ‘Milky Way,’ which takes us way beyond ourselves, and that lovely image of the bird of Paradise. Not the flower but the bird, which legend has it remains in flight, and never comes down to earth. Continually offering our praise.

Then the last two lines, again some of my favourites.
‘Church bells beyond the stars heard’ – wow, the call to prayer, and our response to it going further than we could ever imagine, and being efficacious as it does so.

‘The soul’s blood,’ a slightly gruesome sounding way of saying that prayer is the life giving essence of our souls. Our souls will not flourish without prayer.

    ‘The land of spices;’ there is something very exotic about all that George Herbert has included in his words about prayer, and along with exotic comes the mysterious, so it is a beautiful  paradox that the poem finishes with ‘something understood.’ We can’t explain it, but we get it.

   We can learn so much about the point of praying by dwelling on these beautiful words. Feel free to write you own poem. You will be amazed at what you think when you open your mind.

   Until next time, Bless you, Bless you, Bless you.

Fr Marcus.

    I have attached the words to the Benedicte, which we used to sing from the book of Common Prayer at Matins. You will remember that it says ‘praise him, and magnify him for ever’ after each line. I have taken some out just to make it easier reading.

Benidicite, Omnia Opera
O all ye Works of the Lord, bless ye the Lord :
praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Angels of the Lord, bless ye the Lord :
praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Heavens, bless ye the Lord :
praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Waters that be above the Firmament, bless ye the Lord :
praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O all ye Powers of the Lord, bless ye the Lord :
O ye Sun and Moon, bless ye the Lord :
O ye Stars of Heaven, bless ye the Lord :
O ye Showers and Dew, bless ye the Lord :
praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Winds of God, bless ye the Lord :
O ye Fire and Heat, bless ye the Lord :
O ye Winter and Summer, bless ye the Lord :
O ye Dews and Frosts, bless ye the Lord :
O ye Frost and Cold, bless ye the Lord :
O ye Ice and Snow, bless ye the Lord :
praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Nights and Days, bless ye the Lord :
O ye Light and Darkness, bless ye the Lord :
O ye Lightnings and Clouds, bless ye the Lord :
O let the Earth bless the Lord :
yea, let it praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Mountains and Hills, bless ye the Lord :
O all ye Green Things upon the Earth, bless ye the Lord :
O ye Wells, bless ye the Lord :
O ye Seas and Floods, bless ye the Lord :
O ye Whales, and all that move in the Waters, bless ye the Lord :
praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O all ye Fowls of the Air, bless ye the Lord :
O all ye Beasts and Cattle, bless ye the Lord :
O ye Children of Men, bless ye the Lord :
praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O let Israel bless the Lord :
O ye Priests of the Lord, bless ye the Lord :
praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Servants of the Lord, bless ye the Lord :
O ye Spirits and Souls of the Righteous, bless ye the Lord :
praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye holy and humble Men of heart, bless ye the Lord :
O Ananias, Azarias and Misael, bless ye the Lord :
praise him, and magnify him for ever.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son :
and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be :
world without end. Amen.