I am just getting familiar with the Book of Common Prayer. Old English. Besides the archaism of the language, there is another level of the sense of 'history'. As if all cultures, instinctively, had the sense that they have to 'build' a sacred language. As if a culture, instinctively or deliberately, had the rational knowledge, those human experiences, desires, religious hopes, with all the passions that a culture went through in the past and can go through in the future, which must be preserved in the form of prayer. Which body of sacred prayers will forever remain 'detached' from the turmoil and experiences of the forthcoming ages. Which is why, this language anchored in the past, constitutes a 'sacred heritage'. A sacred memory.
Religion, when offers these ancient 'historical' forms of prayer, does a crucial service to culture. Through these prayers, the inhabitants of our culture make a powerful attempt to return to that 'sacred memory' from which 'distance' our present consciousness can be purified. Thus, prayer is an attempt to renew our consciousness, individual and collective. We need this distance from our presence.
When 'journeying' in the words of the Book of Common Prayer, I have the sense of walking together with previous generations of faith and history. The footsteps of those dead and alive (through this journey all of us are resurrected!) can be heard. History becomes real. This is a wonderful experience: our culture can speak a common language. We are in a journey − Exodus − towards our truer self... Towards a shared vantage point from which not only our present can be judged better and seen more clearly, but also where we find the genuine source of renewal. I would almost say, that of our Resurrection.
08.04. 2014
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