Attention
Sr Breda and I are going to Dromantine tomorrow for our annual retreat. It is north the Border in a rural setting and seems a good place to go in search of seclusion, and hopefully, transformation. On the way we will try to leave our bundles of preoccupations on this side of where the ugly Border barricade used to be. I do not need an excuse for this visit since I love going to Northern Ireland on any pretext or none. It is a place where I once thought I did not belong but found, without knowing how, a new way of belonging –anywhere.
Since Sr Elizabeth is moving house I turned up an appropriate book of hers today, called ‘Experiencing Jesus’ by John Wingaards. He shows how the mystics keep in touch with Jesus through reading Scripture, as we are also called to do in our everyday lives. There is a chapter in Wingaards’ book on Simone Weil, who could be the patron of all the marginalized.
Simone had a strong conviction about the importance of attention. Indeed through the whole of her short life she prioritized attentiveness. Prayer, she discovered, “consists of attention. It is the orientation of all the attention of which the soul is capable towards God. The quality of the attention counts for much in the quality of the prayer.” (p.131). Indeed the “faculty of attention – directed towards God, is the very substance of prayer.” (p.132).
Simone loved the parable of the servant who waits attentively and in patience for the Master’s appearance. It is not by our hard work, or any searching effort initiated by ourselves but, “By waiting in patience you will gain your lives” (Lk 21:19, RSV). Her concept of attention included also the idea of waiting in patience. “And as for the (seed that fell) in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bring forth fruit waiting in patience” (Lk. 8:15)
Not many people have the privilege of six whole days of retreat. But we are all called every day to direct our attention towards God and towards our neighbour. Simone Weil wrote,
“Those who are unhappy have no need for anything in this world but people capable of giving them their attention. The capacity to give ones attention to a sufferer is a very rare and difficult thing; it is almost a miracle; it is a miracle. Nearly all those who think they have this capacity do not possess it. Warmth of heart, impulsiveness, pity are not enough.
The love of our neighbour in all its fullness simply means being able to say to them: ‘What are you going through?’ It is indispensable to know how to look at them in a certain way. The way of looking is first of all attentive.” (p.131).
Simone Weil was Jewish and had no reason or wish to read the Gospels or the lives of the mystics. But after her initial resistance to these sources, she experienced in them powerfully, a means of remaining in touch with Jesus in her everyday life. And today her thoughts and insights are inspirational to many.
Our retreat programme promises to deal with some of the mystics. So who knows, on our return journey we may find that Someone has ‘lifted’ our preoccupations and we can bid them ‘goodbye’ in a newfound attentiveness. That is the hope for this journey north.
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