Prayer Round the Cross
This is perhaps the most popular WHH spiritual activity, one learnt from the ecumenical monastic community of Taizé. The monks there encourage intense bodily expression in prayer, using signs and posture to increase a holistic sense of spirit. For WHH the practice is directly related both to our core belief about the cross—the way it transforms the way we are as humans—and to our attempts to overcome the mind/body duality of received Christian spirituality.
We gather around an icon of the cross laid horizontally on the floor and surrounded by lighted candles. Linda almost always leads. We do Taizé chants and she reads prayers and scripture. People sit in chairs or down on the floor. Sometimes they will kneel over in an attitude of adoration, hands, heads, or both on the ground. Sometimes they will touch the cross with a hand, or even perhaps lay their head on it (being careful not to singe wayward strands of hair!)
The effect is really extraordinary. It demonstrates that there is a real “spiritual” communication through all the assembled signs, the wood, the image, the light, the dark, the words, the bodies of other people, your own body… We’re not talking about a simple physical energy release through posture, but the way embodied. symbol-using creatures can access a meaning in the cross which changes everything—about themselves and their world. It is aligning our whole body-selves with the new humanity of the Risen Crucified.
|
There follows here a Wood Hath Hope Easter Vigil, from 2011. It is conducted in much the same fashion as Prayer Round the Cross, with people gathered around an icon of the cross circled with candles. All the flames bar one are extinguished after the second reading, the murder of Abel by Cain, and then progressively relit during the remainder of the worship. After the last reading but one (Romans) a bowl is placed in the middle of the room and filled with water. People are splashed with drops of the water with words like "Consider yourself dead to self and alive again in Christ." The final reading from Revelation follows. (Words in parentheses refer to hymns. T = Taize chant) PART I: The Good, The Bad and the Blessing 1. Proverbs 8: 22-31 Wisdom accompanies work of creation (Come to the Water, SLJ # 7) 2. Genesis 4: 1-24 Foundations of human culture in violence 3. Genesis 12: 1-3 God's plan of universal redemption (Laudate Omnes Gentes, T # 1) PART II: Love Deep 4. Exodus 14: 1-31 Liberation of Hebrews through waters of the deep 5. Isaiah 51: 9-15 God overcomes monsters of historical abyss (Bless the Lord, T # 13) 6. Hosea 1:1-1:8, 2:6-2:23 The prophet's marriage, a sign of God's love 7. Song of Songs 7:1--8:7 Love is a flame the waters cannot quench (Come Back to Me, # 6) PART III: Abyss of Violence 8. Jonah 2:1--3:10 A prophet in the abyss. The sign of Jonah 9. Isaiah 52.13--53.12 The Servant of God in the pit of suffering (Stay with me, T # 17) 10. Luke 8. 22-39 Jesus commands the waters and the demons of violence 11. Luke 9. 18--27 Jesus' destiny and that of his disciples (In the Lord, T # 15) PART IV: The Messiah Revealed 12. Mark 14: 3-9 A woman signals meaning of the gospel (Jesus Remember Me, T # 3) 13. John 20:1-18 The third day: deconstruction of death (Resucito, # 8) 14. Romans 6: 1-11 The sign of baptism: to die with Jesus to the old way 15. Revelation 21:9--22:2 New human space: heavenly Jerusalem (Wait for the Lord, T # 18) Silence Final "Prayer of Wood Hath Hope" |