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HOLIDAYS

Canon Jeremy Davies, Precentor (Saturday 1st August 2009)

There’s a prayer I sometimes use in the Cathedral called ‘Be Alive’ by an unknown author. The prayer is a list of moments or emotions in everyday life that we often take for granted or are too busy to notice or receive or wonder at. It has three verses, and verse one says for example: “Make new friends: discover old ones”, verse two includes: “Look for rainbows: gaze at stars” and verse three adds: “Slow down: be soft sometimes”. As you can imagine, it’s not a prayer I use often – certainly not when our more cynical lay vicars are in attendance! It’s a bit twee (“pick some daisies: share them” – is one of the exhortations) and perhaps verges on the sentimental. But for all that – or maybe because it has an unfussy, unchurchy naturalness about it – it touches people and moves them. I now keep a stock of copies of ‘Be Alive’ in the vestry because I know whenever I use it, copies will be requested. Over a dozen copies were distributed after the Saturday evensong of the Southern Cathedrals Festival! Someone commented to me that the point about the prayer is that it encourages us to notice, to pay attention, to wonder; it brings us, if only for a moment, to a place where we can “stop and stare”. We don’t do enough of that, even in Church where we are all so busy ‘doing’ that we lose the capacity to receive the gifts of nature and human encounter and deeply felt emotion that God created for us before we created time-tables, diaries and agendas.

We are now in the holiday season. Holiday as we all know comes from the words ‘holy day’, reminding us that, on holy days in the Church’s calendar, our forebears were given time off to celebrate the Feast. We’ve lost the sacred dimension of holidays, but we still hang on to the word. Perhaps we need to recover the idea of the holy that will bring balance to our lives. We might start by using this prayer ‘Being Alive’ and taking seriously the sense of gift that each moment and each meeting of each day offers. That’s what a holy day is. Have a good one.

Think freely: Practise patience:
Smile often: Savour special moments:
Live God’s message: Make new
friends: Discover old ones: Tell those
you love that you do: Feel deeply:

Forget trouble: Forgive an enemy.
Pick some daisies: Share them: Keep
a promise: Look for rainbows: Gaze at
stars: See beauty everywhere: Work
hard: Be wise: Try to understand:
Take time for people: Make time for yourself.

Laugh heartily: Spread joy: Take a
chance: Reach out: Let someone in:
Try something new: Slow down: Be
soft sometimes: Celebrate life:
Believe in yourself: Trust others: See
a sunrise: Listen to rain: Reminisce:
Cry when you need to …
Author unknown

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