How long we spend resting in the Lord before our vision clears can sometimes depend on how harassed or weary we are when we come to pray. For most of us the time needed in our modern world is long, longer than we believe.

Some years ago I learned the value of being prepared to wait for a very long time. I was then working in Birmingham. For my day off I usually travelled down to Herefordshire. This time, it was at the end of the August bank holiday. As I drove along the A146 I met long lines of traffic heading back to Birmingham. The drone of cars and motorbikes increased my weariness.

Arriving at the little cottage in Lower Hardwick where I was to spend 24 hours I prepared a simple supper and afterwards sat out happily at the back of the cottage to read the papers as the sun moved down the sky.

I soon became aware that my mind was not absorbing what I was reading. So I put the newspaper aside and decided to catch up on my prayers. Again, my mind failed to respond. To focus was painful. Laying aside my prayer book I surrendered to the peace of the evening and decided to spend the time with the Lord quietly in silence.

The time passed slowly. The main feeling was one of weariness, of stupor. Why continue? Go to bed, my good sense suggested. Yet I felt that staying on there in the silence was the best thing I could do. So I stayed, and an hour passed. My exhaustion had begun to lift.

Again, good sense suggested that now was the moment to head for sleep. But some instinct kept me there in the garden seat that overlooked the spacious fields, with the cattle sheltering under the trees and the Black Mountains fading.

Time passed quickly now. An hour later I was as fresh as if I had enjoyed a full night’s sleep. My eyes took in everything before me. No longer did I look without seeing. Now I saw the things my tired eyes had failed to notice. Each object seemed to be bathed in its own individual glory. Each thing seemed holy. The sound from the sparrows in the eaves was a welcome sound. The rustle of the leaves was soothing. Each moment seemed filled with a presence.

That experience taught me that to find rest through silence in God’s presence may sometimes take longer than we imagine when we set out on the road to silent prayer. But the effect of spending a long time in silent resting with the Lord is that our weariness dissolves, our vision that was clouded and unseeing is cleared, and we see with new eyes. As our mind becomes quiet, our inner eye is opened. We are in a new world.

An extract from Finding Your Hidden Treasure

© 2010 Benignus O’Rourke OSA

Published by Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd

© Photo: Ian Wilson OSA

Get the book: www.theaugustinians.org