Markers of the day
Now Peter and John were going up to the temple area for the three o’clock hour of prayer.
Acts 3:1 (NABRE)
The National Gallery held an exhibition of some of Millet’s works over the summer. He was a nineteenth century French artist probably best known for his realistic, unsentimental paintings of peasants working around his home in Normandy.
The exhibition was in just one room. Walk in and turn to the left and see pictures of men sowing, ploughing, winnowing, sawing tree trunks, splitting logs and carrying logs. Go right and follow pictures of women collecting and carrying piles of fagots, looking after geese and sheep, feeding chickens, and carrying milk cans on their shoulders. This was the life of the rural peasant. Although this is not true of all Millet’s paintings, this selection showed hard-working people who were often weary and exhausted.
Whichever way you went in the exhibition, to the right or the left, you would arrive at the central painting that divided the two: The Angelus. It’s one of Millet’s best known works. A husband and wife stand in a potato field with their heads bowed, stopping work to recite the Angelus prayer. Behind them in the distance is a church, and the glowing light of the ebbing day.
Traditionally, the Angelus was prayed at 6am, noon, and 6pm. Nineteenth century Catholic France was a culture that moved to the markers and rhythms of the day. The church would have rung out this marker of the day: a time when people stopped the back-breaking work they did for their survival, for a moment, and remembered that there were other things in life than work.
Nationally, we have lost any sacred rhythm to our days. We have a general, though not universal, rhythm of work: 9 to 5. But apart from those of the Islamic persuasion, our days are not required to be punctuated by sacred stops of reflection and prayer. It is for each one of us to establish some habits or even daily disciplines that help us to stop and give us time to acknowledge the One who gives us our days, and who has not only given us this day, but every day into the future.
Prayer
Our loving Father, may we, as we are able, stop in our day and remember – remember you, remember our Lord and Saviour, made flesh to save us, and remember that through him, you have freely given us a future. Amen.
|
Study by: Hilary Buck About the author: |
 |
Local congregation:
Grace Communion in Lewes
The House of Friendship
208 High Street
Lewes
BN7 2NS
Meeting time:
Sunday 11:00 am
Local congregational contact:
Hilary Buck
Email: lewes@gracecom.church
Like us on www.facebook.com/Grace Communion Lewes
Word of Life contact:
wordoflife@gracecom.church