Yesterday I went to drop
off two of my in-law’s clocks at a tiny workshop where a lady fixes antique
time machines. The lady was a story in
itself, but for this post, I want to focus on the clocks. My husband has almost a clock obsession. He has plans of someday building a clock
tower attached to a chapel (that is in the plans as well). The clock will run with carved wood
pieces. I am probably not technical
enough to explain all this, nor do I really understand it all, but for the sake
of time—that’s simple a really old way of making clocks. In fact, so old that it goes back to the monasteries.
It was the monastic life
that created a need for the invention of clocks in the first place. In our fast, rushed, to-the-minute lifestyle,
who could have guessed that the original purpose for the daily hours, was, well…The
Daily Hours (i.e. the prayers and readings of the Church)? The mechanical time-keeper allowed nuns and
monks to keep track of the hours of prayer, thus inciting the bell-ringer to call
the community to worship and discipleship.
My husband recently
bought a pocket-watch that is over a hundred years old. Because it was made a hundred years ago it is
still working. It is a quality piece of
workmanship. If you open up the back,
you can literally watch time unfold. The
gears click and turn, and so goes our seconds, minutes, hours. I am constantly becoming more aware of how
fast time goes by as I watch it tick through its moments. The trees we plant in our yard this fall,
will be full grown when I turn about sixty, and my life will be drawing to an
end. It’s a sober reminder that we are
but a breath and that all things pass away.
But in those moments as
we watch time go by, how do we somehow reclaim the rhythm of the first clocks
that were built in the monasteries? How
do we find sacred time while we are here on earth? One way, of course, is to reclaim those hours
of prayer as first used in the monasteries.
When we have retreats come to my husband’s ministry, we do just
that. (Although, not all the hours—there is a place for that,
but probably not in the initiation phase!).
But keeping the hours of prayer isn’t for everyone, and I realize
that. As I’ve been thinking about clocks
in the past many months, I have watched the church seasons go by. Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week,
Easter, Pentecost, and Ordinary Time.
The end of the year and the beginning of the year is just packed with
theological significance. Each season
rolls into another and they disciple us and mold us. They are also different every year as we go
through life and change ourselves. The
season right now, however, is Ordinary Time.
I was slightly disappointed the first year I celebrated these seasons. Ordinary Time almost seemed like the wind had
gone of the seasons. But Ordinary Time
is always looking back at Pentecost and forward to Advent. Ordinary Time also just rests. But while we rest, we are reminded that all
time, even Ordinary Time, can be made holy.
We are God’s people and we participate in a faith community that exists
separate from any other time period. We participate
in these seasons with the saints before us and those who will come after us. We may be but a breath on this earth, but, as
Christ to the world, we may reign with Him forever. One God, now and forever, world without end,
Alleluia, Amen.
(Cross-posted at www.everydayliturgy.com )
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