"To Kneel Where Prayer Has Been Valid": A Lenten Quiet Day

In 1625, Nicholas Ferrar moved his large extended family to an estate at Little Gidding, establishing a domestic community living out the teaching of the Book of Common Prayer. Together, with strict discipline, but without vows or promises, they hallowed each hour of the day with the daily office, with psalmody, and with loving care for the health, welfare, and Christian formation of the neighboring village. Perhaps this sounds rigorous and dour, yet visitors reported being refreshed and transformed by the continuous quiet joy that filled the place. The experiment at Little Gidding has been a powerful touchstone for Anglican spirituality through the centuries. In the twentieth, T.S. Eliot’s fourth poem of Four Quartets bears its name and adds a dimension of mystical theology that helps clarify the potency of its witness. In this Quiet Day, we will explore with souls and bodies the prayerbook liturgies and the stillness of contemplative prayer, weaving them to hallow our day and prepare ourselves for ministry to our communities. We will begin with morning prayer, spend a few moments looking at Ferrar’s Little Gidding experiment through historical texts, and drop into contemplative practices. At midday a contemplative mass will be offered. There will be time for a simple luncheon followed by silent time for rest, reading, and personal prayer. The afternoon will open with a few moments’ look at Eliot’s transcendent “Little Gidding” to ground us in the mystical view before we engage in contemplative practices together again. The day will close with evening prayer. Please join us in this expression of our Anglican heritage and its call to quiet, holiness, and service.