Silent Saturday. Conducting the Pause

Arriving at this threshold to Easter you are invited to pause and retreat, to deepen and to breath, to listen and to hum.

A prayer room at a monastery in the mountains of Greece, A. Furchert.

Welcome, fellow pilgrim,

to the pivot point, the turning point, in our Passion journey. We are in suspended time after the tomb is sealed and before it is opened. The fiery trial is over and now we watch and wait. If we watch, something holy can germinate in this time of waiting.  

Conducting the Pause

I had the chance to sing the St. Matthew Passion with the Munich Bach choir for several seasons. There was one moment I will never forget. It was not one of the many beautiful arias sung by gifted musicians which moved my heart, nor some of the deeply felt chorals I was part of.

Instead, it was a simple moment of silence.

The silence entered, when our conductor, Hansjörg Albrecht, intentionally held onto the musical ‘rest’ after Jesus bowed his head and died. When he conducted the last word and tone telling of Jesus death, he stood still, with his arms in suspension, cradling the time. It was as though the whole audience sighed together, like our hearts stood still for a moment, pausing in unison. Only after what felt like an eternity, the conductor moved his arms towards the choir leading us into the choral.

Since then I have known that conducting the pause is as important as conducting the whole Passion. It holds onto the time and creates a moment of sacred suspension, when life is on hold and silence enters.

Suspending Time

This is what our rituals for the Saturday of Holy week are designed to do: To give us this experience of suspended time.

Twice we have sat the Easter vigil with the sisters of St. Benedict’s Monastery on Saturday night. It is a joining in the same pause my director in Munich conducted. The long vigil runs the entire night from right after the vigil service in the evening until the early Sunday morning celebration of Mass. The sisters do it in turns in the chapel, with people coming and going every hour.

We have found it a time of rest for the soul. Emptying ourselves to experience the fullness of time. Sitting with and through the night.

Cradling Hope

In Germany this day is called “Stiller Samstag”, silent Saturday. It is the stillness, time suspended in the space between death and resurrection, darkness and light, the tomb and new life.

It recalls the journey of the pottery through the fire at St John's Abbey. The inferno in this kiln, about which we wrote yesterday. It takes six weeks to load 20,000 pieces of pottery into the kiln, the fire then courses through it for 10 days, constantly fed with new wood.  Then the doors are closed and we wait.  The crowds of volunteers who fired the kiln drift away.  Those who are left pause their labors and ... wait.  

In the 2 weeks of waiting, the pottery bakes into its final, transmuted form and cools before the stone is rolled away and the kiln is opened. 

The Sacred Pause: A Holy Saturday Retreat

So today we invite you to retreat into time suspended:  

If you have been walking with us all week, you might want to look back to a consolation or musical selection that most moved you (here you can find all consolations listed in lovely communion waiting for you).

Use your meditation time today to walk through the week of consolations as you might walk the stations of the cross -- pausing at each one to reflect, then moving on.

Revisit some of them, remember and re-read a thought you want to deepen, a piece of music you want to listen to.  Listen with the ears of your heart to the music and the poetry.

Sit still.  Remember the movement and feel your way through it again. Let Bach help you silence your worried or busy heart.

Have a journal near by. Write down what stirs up.

Or:

Retreat from music and word altogether and let nature speak to you instead on a short slow walk.

Or perhaps you want to meditate on the Easter mystery by baking a bread or do some gardening? By picking some Spring branches?

If you have recently joined our pilgrim band:

You might take today to scroll back through the daily Consolations and find those points in the movement of the week that best fit your need.

You can find all Consolations listed on our Passion Week home page right here or at the bottom of this email.

Rather than reading through them all quickly, create your own retreat by spending some time with two or three that seem best fitted to your need now.

You can think of them almost like stations of the cross, one visits and revisits quietly, walking by some with a nod, but sitting down with, pondering on, sinking into some others.

If you long for a community to be held on this day, you can read and respond to our community conversation which you find under each post online, or listed right here.

For example, you might wish to join our heart felt table conversation we had on Maundy Thursday.

Chuck and I are here for you and respond to each comment. As you might want to others.

Ending with a lullaby

Bach himself ends the Matthew Passion with a lullaby to the weary soul. After the stone has been rolled in front of the tomb, the choir sets the mood and enfolds us in the emotion: "Wir setzen uns mit Tränen nieder" (We sit down in tears).