Deep Calls to Deep

Not long ago I was searching for simple worship formats for a retreat, and found myself on a site I had discovered years ago. The site, as well as the community, has grown in the interim, and I was so attracted to the simple depth of these prayers that I ordered their prayerbook, Celtic Daily Prayer: Prayers and Readings from the Northumbria Community, HarperSanFrancisco, 2002.

The Northumbria Community is on the extreme northeast of England, a rugged place firmly bounded between Scotland and the North Sea. But, for me, the westerly orientation of my Maine Island meets their eastern coast in more than geographical affinity. I am struck this morning by two fundamental dimensions of this lovely book.

The first is the Invocation of the Holy Spirit:

Most powerful Holy Spirit,

come down

upon us

and subdue us.

From heaven,

where the ordinary

is made glorious,

and glory seems

but ordinary,

bathe us

with the brilliance

of Your light

like dew.

There she is again--the glorious ordinary, caught up into heaven that she might actually bless the earth.

The second striking feature of this book is "The Community Rule of Availability and Vulnerability"

I say 'Yes, my Lord'

in all the good times,

through all the bad times.

And here my heart sings. This is the central theme of "Songs of Assent" and they rightly name the same life lesson as vulnerability and accessibility. The community writes, "This involves availability to God and to others--expressed in a commitment to being alone with God in the cell of our own heart and to being available for hospitality, intercession and mission. Intentional vulnerability is expressed through being teachable in the discipline of prayer, saturation in the Scriptures and being accountable to one another..." (p.10)

I may live on the other side of the pond, but, in my most alive moments, my heart invokes this same prayer, and wants to live by the same rule. Deep does call to deep--even when my life is lived out in a sub-division on the west edge of Chicago (with one amazing week on that Maine coast.) But it gets pretty rugged here at times, too. May my heart remember and live in this space with the same clarity and confidence as is manifest in these wise prayers.

www.northumbriacommunity.org