A few weeks ago, I shared a poem by R.S. Thomas in which he spoke of the apparent emptiness that can accompany prayer; the most he ever saw was “the flickering of the curtains” as he imagined he was praying to God in a house. I said that this is an experience I know well. This seems to have caused some comment, perhaps even concern. Silence and emptiness are not things we necessarily take well. I live by myself and so have no problems with silence but I do not cope well with inactivity; I always want to be doing things. This is fine, up to a point, but I do know that sometimes I simply need to stop and let nothing happen. I think R.S. Thomas also knew this; he prayed through the silence and emptiness because he knew that even in that void, God was still present. Throughout the centuries, Christian “mystics”, men and women of deep prayer and contemplation, have discovered this. A friend of mine once told me that he learns more about God from the times of silence than at any other time in his life. Much has been written about “the dark night of the soul”, the “cloud of unknowing”. For me, the reality of the God who is present in the emptiness is summed up in the hymn “Dear Lord and Father or mankind”; it speaks of Jesus praying by sharing with God the father “the silence of eternity, interpreted by love”. In that space, words, actions and feelings no longer matter; there is only God.
Rev David Poyner