Posted on: 31st March 2025

Are you dizzy?

You should be…

Many years ago I read somewhere that the earth is spinning on its axis at the rate of around one thousand miles per hour. Just a bit quicker than the speed of sound, and certainly quicker than this middle-aged vicar on his peddle bike! The earth spinning might be imperceptible to us, but it does make you think that in a constantly moving and rotating world where can one find a point of absolute stillness? Physicists with brains far greater than mine will tell you that the only absolute point of stillness in a spinning globe is the point at the very centre. The point of absolute stillness. 

Here at the Crypt, our lives can, at times, feel like a spinning globe. We are a busy place, whether that is at lunchtime when we feed anything from eighty to a hundred people or in giving the support that tries to move our friends from a place of chaos to a more stable plateau. At times, we can feel like we are spinning plates…or maybe it is actually we are the spinning plates. My hunch is that many people from many walks of life can identify with that feeling, whether that is in the frantic demands of a hospital ward or sitting in the director’s chair of a multinational corporation.

Recently, the leadership team of the Crypt entered a Theological Reflection Partnership with the Community of the Resurrection at Mirfield, and over the course of three days, we explored the value of silent prayer. Personally, in my own spirituality, silent prayer is a reconnection with God, the God who is the point of absolute goodness at the heart of each one of us. In silence, and away from the busyness, the noise and the words, we get this marvellous opportunity to journey deep inside us to that still centre and reconnect with the God of all goodness.

In the words of Ben O’Rourke, who wrote a wonderful book on silent prayer*, ‘When we return to our hearts, we find rest and peace within that place of solitude where Christ awaits us to welcome us home.’

Are you dizzy?

You don’t need to be…

By Rev Andy Muckle, St George's Crypt.

*Ben O’Rourke: Finding your Hidden Treasure (Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd, 2010)