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I noticed the other day that there is a new CD of Plainchant available in the shops. It seems that no matter how secular society may be there is a desire for the spiritual, and a need for peace and calm. As you read this imagine that you are listening to some plainchant music and you will immediately feel a sense of peace which is not of this world. Well that is what I think, anyway! Because I think that the sound of plainchant is one of many ways that we catch a glimpse of the peace of Christ, the peace which he promised us when he said: My peace I leave you, my peace I give you a peace the world cannot give. Perhaps this is why people keep returning to plainchant music because there is something enduring about its quality which is not present in many other ways that people try and achieve peace in their lives.
One place where I have often heard plainchant is at Bolton Abbey. And in that sacred space there is a very real sense of peace and calm. Also in that place there are prayer cards for people who are not sure how to spend the time in prayer. On these cards there are prayers for different situations in life: when someone wants to thank God; when someone is conscious of their own sins; when someone is worried about something; when someone wants to pray for another person. In one way or another every situation could be addressed in prayer. Which reminds me of the Book of Psalms that the monks sing using plainchant: in this book the psalmist brings in all humanity and the situations, thoughts and feelings that go with it.
This is something that we can experience in our own prayer if we are prepared to open all of our lives to Christ for I believe the peace of Christ comes when we try and have a regular prayer life which brings all that we are into God's presence. For this we don't need to be a monk or to be sat in the church at Bolton Abbey. What we do need is to do is to trust when he promises us the gift of his peace. If we allow his peace to break into our lives then it will transform us and allow us to be channels of his peace to those around us. Perhaps this is part of what St. Francis meant with his great prayer:
Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Amen.
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Holy Saviour RC Church - Nelson