On Good Works, Labour and Prayer: contemplation and action: thoughts from St Aelred, a Cistercian spiritual master
The germ of the idea for this reflection was born from a discussion in a meeting I attended. The subject in this debate arose from a person voicing a concern about her parish over focusing on committees and activities that dealt with environment, fair trade and local social projects. While she applauded and valued this work, she was slightly concerned about a lesser emphasis on worship and liturgy and quiet prayer. This was a personal view, but I have seen the issue expressed recently in more public forums, in journalism and on social media.
This gave me food for thought. As followers of the Rule of St. Benedict, we are immersed in the idea and practice of balance, prayer and work. But, I wondered, how harmoniously do I personally live this life. Reflecting on this, I began a little spring cleaning. As I dusted and reordered a bookshelf, I came across a slim volume not looked at for a while, a collection of the writings of St Aelred of Rievaulx, selected by Basil Pennington. Feeling drawn to open it, I lighted upon Sermon 19 for the Feast of the Assumption of Saint Mary. A ‘serendipitous’ choice, for therein lay a beautiful meditation on the roles of Mary and Martha, and how we may balance these roles in our life. An answer to my musings.
Aelred teaches us that as long as those who are Christ’s brothers and sisters go hungry and thirsty and are tempted, Christ is hungry and thirsty and tempted. As long as life is difficult and there is stuff to be done, Martha must be present with us. Our soul must concern itself with corporal activity and we must have recourse to ‘vigils, fasts and manual labour’ to counter our temptations. As long as we need to eat and drink, Martha must be present.
But Mary and Martha should never be separated, for Mary is the spiritual activity that must aways be present in our soul. ‘By no means should you neglect Mary for the sake of Martha, nor again Martha for the sense of Mary.’ If Jesus is still with us, then we need Martha to feed his hungry and visit his sick. We must also work to earn our living, but God, at the same time, gives us little nibbles of spiritual sweetness to keep us going. It happens sometimes that we try to introduce Martha into our Mary times, but Aelred tells us that it is a temptation, when we are engaged in lectio for example, not to keep our minds on it and to think instead about all the tasks we ought to be doing. Looking for displacement activities is clearly not a modern phenomenon!
Aelred is also firm that people should not be divided into either Marys or Marthas. In the Gospel passage, Jesus needs both women to carry out their tasks wholeheartedly and separately. None of us is complete without the two elements being combined, not even the greatest of the Fathers. We all need to practise both roles, but at the appropriate time, our lives balanced between work and prayer. When it is work time, we must be energetic and committed and should never neglect the ‘ministry of love’ just to be quiet and sit with our books.
However, one person combines perfectly these two roles in her life, that is, of course, Blessed Mary, Our Lady. Aelred reminds us how she clothed and fed Our Lord, fled carrying him to safety, and cared for him throughout his young life. But she also contemplated his extraordinary nature, treasured all his words and deeds and eventually his divinity, self -sacrifice and obedience to God. She marries in her person loving deeds and compassionate works with spiritual understanding, listening and prayer. A perfect synthesis for us to reverence in her month of May.
So we must work in Christ’s name on our church committees and activities which pursue social justice and care for the earth and our neighbours. These are all stones in the building of the Kingdom. But our Benedictine training helps us to keep a perspective, to prefer nothing to Christ, to support all our activities on a structure of prayer and reading of the Gospel.
Let us reverence St Aelred for his wise counsel and understanding.
Bev Hallam
Oblate of Stanbrook
Bibliography
Aelred of Rievaulx The Way of Friendship. Selected spiritual writings, ed. M. Basil Pennington
The translations used by M. Pennington are largely taken from The Works of Aelred of Rievaulx, published by Cistercian Publications (Kalamazoo, Michigan).
