Waiting at the threshold

The last line of R.S. Thomas’ poem Kneeling reads, ‘The meaning is in the waiting.’ When we pray or meditate we should not expect manna to fall from heaven. As T.S. Eliot says in Little Gidding, ‘Prayer is more than an order of words.’ We stand at a door. We knock. And we wait. Sometimes ­– often – it seems as though no one is going to open that door. Then there are days when the door opens an inch or two and we hear music as from another room. It is the sound of that music, heard however briefly, that encourages to persevere. Often without our being consciously aware, something is being worked through at a deep level within us: old problems resolved, old enmities, jealousies, lusts, angers, anxieties.

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3 thoughts on “Waiting at the threshold”

  1. Thank you very dear James for your words, which Tom and I always read and appreciate. There is balm always.
    With very much love,
    Jennie and tom McDonnell

  2. Dearest James,
    A sense of shared thanksgiving came over me as I read this. it is a real encouragement to have the creative nature of waiting highlighted – waiting can seem lonely work but to be reminded there is something being resolved, healed in the waiting that is a blessing in the making. Thank you.
    With Love
    Diana

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