Sound of Silence

The other night I was at church to sing in the choir for the Orthodox Palm Sunday evening service, the Bridegroom service, as it is called. All the excitement and energy of the Palm Sunday morning liturgy now completed, it was time to quietly celebrate these evening services of Holy Week. Their tone is reverent, peaceful, reflective. They represent Christ's journey beginning with His arrival in Jerusalem to his crucifixion, death and glorious Resurrection. If you follow along, attending these beautiful services, you becaome a true participant in the events as they unfold in a kind of "real time". They are not of the past, some historic tribute or memorial, but we are actually there!

After the choir sang, we came downstairs for the remainder of the service. It was extremely moving for me, to hear the Byzantine chant, see the priests in their opulent vestments, smell the beautiful rose incense, all in a candle-lit setting. The Orthodox service is a feast for the senses. When I left at the end of the evening, I turned off the car radio, and came home in silence. It was like a breath of fresh air.

Frankly, and I am guilty as well, we are inundated with sound, images, action! All the time. We truly, in our modern world, do not leave time for contemplation, or anything that involves solely giving of one's time to a particular pursuit, without "multi-tasking" as it were. There is always the fear of missing something.

And so, in a sudden reaction to all this, when I got home I decided to be quiet. I DID NOT turn on the television. I DID NOT turn on any music. I DID NOT flood the house with light. I sat down with a decent amount of light, and read a book I've been meaning to start.

When I finally decided to call it a night, I reflected on how nice it was. I thought of folks from the "Enlightened Age", without big screen tv's, Ipads, cel phones, sound systems, electric light fixtures, etc. .....All our modern conveniences. I decided to put them all away for a bit, at least for this week. It's certainly an adjustment, but I am thinking that the price is worth it.

There may be time to write a beautifully-penned letter; not an email. There may be time to practice guitar for more than 15-20 minutes. There may be time to read an entire book in one sitting. Or enjoy a good conversation with a friend, or listen to the birds. I'm lookin forward to the sound of silence.