Devoted to God
Everything is done with the utmost, precise ritual.
The gospel cannot be read unless the reader is first blessed.
The reader does not begin before pausing in deep contemplation and kissing the page.
The bread and wine are not brought to the altar without it being wafted with incense from all sides.
Each time someone passes in front of the altar they must genuflect,
Before each action, one monk bows to the other.
Everything possible is being done to enhance the significance of what is being done,
To proclaim that these actions are sacred,
To express outwardly the deep, devoted reverence with which the monks regard their liturgy,
To bring the holy out into the open
So that all can experience the presence of God’s love.
The brothers have spent their lives nurturing this deep love for God;
They hold it in their hearts day by day,
And by the extravagant ritual of their worship, they display it for all to see,
In order to enter into the holy,
To be enfolded in the love of God,
To gaze on a tangible outward form of God’s holiness.
All their desire is to know God, even though he is beyond knowledge.
Even though the gulf between us and God as he fully is is still there,
And the veil of dark unknowing that shrouds our limited minds is still thick as velvet,
The radiance of God’s presence is acted out through devotion to the liturgy and reverence for all participating in it.
And you understand that this is no act, no outward show – a pretence of reality.
If anyone else performed these same actions the ritual would be hollow and empty.
It is because the monks have spent their lives utterly focussed on inner transformation that we are able to experience an authentic love for God, and the love of God, as they exemplify in word and action what it means to love him;
To turn their hearts inside out for all to see,
To make outward, to put on public display all that is inward, all that is most intimate:
The lifetime’s search to be close to God, and to honour him in everything you do.
And so, as you are enfolded in the mystery, as you become wrapped up in God’s mantle,
Caught up, and most generously welcomed into what is not your experience, but which is being shared with you as though it was,
The question insistently falls into your soul, fills your mind, carves a question in your heart:
If this is what these monks are doing to show that they are utterly devoted to God, what are you going to do to show that you are?
They have chosen this way of life.
It is not your way of life, but in your life, how are you going to live out the truth that God is everything to you?
That his holy presence surrounds you each day of your life?
That you know that his love is everything to you?
And that you are doing everything you possibly can to show that you love him with all your heart, and mind and soul and strength?
Spiritual Devotion 