Thought for the Week - 14/3/2021

Dear Friends, 

I wonder if you like the task of vacuuming. Last year we discovered that our old vacuum cleaner wasn’t being as efficient as it once was and so we bought a new one, this time a lightweight, cordless model which I have to say is just brilliant. In Gordon Giles book At Home in Lent – an exploration of Lent through 46 objects, last week, amongst other things, we considered the vacuum cleaner, of which he says is one of the most significant labour-saving devices. The first patent for a vacuum cleaner came in 1908 building on the previous efforts including the wonderfully named ‘Improved Vacuum Apparatus for Removing Dust from Carpets’, and today he says that ‘millions of people have been grateful for this application of science to an unavoidable chore’. He goes on to highlight the story of Martha and Mary from Luke 10, sisters who are engaged in very different tasks as Jesus comes to visit them. Martha is all about rushing around doing the chores in preparation and during the visit, whilst Mary sits at Jesus’ feet and listens. Not surprisingly Martha is rather put out and demands that Jesus tell Mary to come and help her with the plea, ‘Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself?’ We are often encouraged when looking at this story to have something of the attitude of both Martha and Mary in our own lives, of a balance of activity and contemplation, and it is the monastic Benedictine tradition which sees work as prayer, ensuring that time is devoted to worship, work and sleep. ‘Martha’s work was in the service of her household and of Jesus, their honoured guest. Mary’s work was to act as patient host. The two women manifest two attitudes which can be combined in a healthy lifestyle of prayer and work: prayerful work, balanced by what some call the ‘work of God’, which is prayer and praise’. So even when we are vacuuming around the house carrying out this essential task, we can still be in a reflective mood and prayerful activity, perhaps with the Welsh poet and Anglican priest, George Herbert’s hymn in mind – ‘Teach me my God and King, in all things Thee to see, and what I do in anything to do it as for Thee.’ 

Grace and peace,

Neil

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