Categories: uncategorized
Date: 24 November 2005 17:18:17
One of the things that the nuns at Tyburn Convent organise is called the Tyburn Association of Adoration. Basically, you sign up to one night a month to spend in Adoration before the Blessed Sacrament, praying for the intentions of the nuns and anything else you think needs praying for.
My first night was last Saturday, the 19th. You turn up between 8:30 and 9, with the first shift starting at 9:30. I took the first shift, so from 9:30 to 11:30pm it was just me in the dimly-lit chapel, with the Blessed Sacrament exposed in a monstrance on the altar (and the traffic whizzing past on Hyde Park Place, and the odd passing drunk who thought it would be fun to bang on the door). The sacristan comes round just before nine to lock the chapel doors, so I was perfectly safe, it was just distracting. Then from 11:30 to 1:30 the other person took over whilst I went downstairs and slept, with my final shift being the two hours from 1:30 to 3:30, then I slept until just before Mass started at 7:30. I had grand plans for waking up at 5:30 to hear the nuns sing Nocturnes, but I didn't.
So, two hours contemplating the heart of Jesus. I found it quite scary, really, but good scary. I'm still not sure I've clarified all my thoughts about it, but I found it a useful experience. One of the things I struggle with is unscripted prayer, because I have a terror of falling into "Lord, we just, really, just, wanna, just, really, Lord" manner of prayer (surely what Jesus was warning against when he said "do not babble like the pagans do")! So this was an opportunity to sit and ponder and not worry about "finding the right words."
Oh, and I've finished my hat. I think the wool I knitted it in was slightly smaller than the pattern was designed for, so I've had a constant sensation that it was about to ping off my head like an over-stretched rubber band. So I've knitted a simple crossover cable band and sewn it onto the bottom of the hat, and it ain't going nowhere now. Now to get on with the matching scarf.