The 7 Ss
Our Contemporary Rule of Life
St James' Park: A Place of Prayer photographed by Richard Carter
Silence, Service, Scripture, Sacrament, Sharing, Sabbath, Staying With
The Nazareth Community has a simple, contemporary rule of life. We did not sit down and write it before we began; rather over the course of more than a year we prayed it into being. Since then, we have tried to live it, and it has emerged organically from our practice. Our rule of life is a gift to us that is still emerging. We began with silence and listening deeply. Each of the 7Ss is one of the roots to our life as a community. When all the roots work together, it is earthed, nourished and able to flourish. Or another metaphor we can us is that our rule is like the seven strings of an instrument – using the seven notes of the scale to create harmony. Each person brings their own emphasis or giftedness. While one of our community may have great gifts of service and care for those who are homeless, another may bring a great gift of silence and contemplation. Together we create the community. A generous listening, lectio listening, is so vital to the life of our community. The seven Ss are not actions to be performed rather they are a deeper humanity we discover. They are not achievements we succeed at; they are ways of living that are spacious and beautiful. When we find a rhythm to live these promises, it opens up within a liminal space that is vertical and horizontal, transcendent and immanent, above and with, without and within, mysterious and known. There is nothing competitive about these promises. In keeping them, we support one another and seek to be a blessing to each member of the community and beyond. In keeping each of these 7Ss we do not do it alone – we do it in generous solidarity with each other.
Silence
Silence and contemplative prayer are at the very heart of our rule of life. We are formed by this silence. As we enter into silence, we place ourselves in the presence of Christ. We create the place and space for a deeper listening to God, the longings of our own souls and a deep compassion for the world. We commit ourselves to a weekly pattern of contemplative prayer giving time to the One we love. This contemplative prayer is the heartbeat of our community; it is the breath of Christ within each one of us – a breath or Spirit we share together. In silence we make our home with God. We are spiritually and physically turning to Christ and allowing the preoccupations of self to get out of the way so we can allow Christ to dwell at our very centre. Silence is that which allows room for the gift of self and for the gift of Christ to fill that space. The soul empties itself of all its own contents in order to receive the gift of humanity and divinity.
Service
In simple acts of giving and receiving and face to face encounter we discover Christ in those we meet. We recognise Christ’s presence especially among those most in need and who face the fear of homelessness, loneliness, exclusion and lostness - in their many forms. We discover the joy and reciprocity of true way of service. We recognise the greatest service is often simply being with. Paradoxically we also discover he best way of caring for ourselves is to really care for the life of others. Serving others –seeing them, hearing them, accompanying them – not only opens our lives to their full humanity but our full humanity too. Acts of genuine service lead people to wonder, 'If this is the kindness of the servant what must the master be like?' We aim not to create dependency but for the full humanity of each other to grow in trust.
Scripture
The daily contemplation of scripture nourishes our relationship with God and one another. In scripture we learn to seek the Word made flesh and the One who is the Way the Truth and the Life. Through a pattern of Lectio Divina we seek to discover how the Word can be fulfilled in our hearing and in us too. We seek not a literal truth to judge or confine, nor an intellectual academic exercise (though it may inform our understanding), rather we are seeking the Spirit of Christ that sets us free. We realise through shared reflection how God is revealed in different ways through the scriptures in different people. We seek the face of Christ and we learn to ponder all that he has taught us and carry it with us in our hearts. We realise that scripture is not a closed book of the past but a script that calls us to enter the action ourselves and demands our response.
Sacrament
The sacrament of the Eucharist is central to our weekly pattern of community worship as we receive and remember that we are the body of Christ. We live in a sacramental world where the outward signs of Christ’s presence are all around us- opening up for us God’s overflowing grace. When we become aware of that grace we are like acorn cups beneath a waterfall of God’s love. We can discover Christ’s sacramental presence in one another and we too can be sacraments of his grace. As we become more attentive to all God has created, every detail speaks of the miracle and wonder and mystery of God’s love.
Sharing
Christ calls us into community – to have fellowship with one another. All God’s gifts are made to be honoured and shared. Greed, pride, individualism and acquisitiveness can cut us off from being blessings to one another and stewards of God’s gifts. When Jesus said “It is more blessed to give than to receive,” (Acts 20.35) he was not simply sharing a moral obligation, he was sharing a profound truth about God and about our humanity. We become what God called us to be through giving. But sharing also involves the humility to recognise and receive the gifts of others. To hear and see with the ear and eye of our hearts. Each month we meet together to listen deeply to the story of each other’s lives and to share food in the same way as the disciples shared breakfast with Christ after his resurrection.
Sabbath
We believe that Sabbath was given to us by God as the culmination of all creation. It is not something to be added on like extra time, or that one should try to fit in after the real activities of the week: rather it is a time to be cherished. Sabbath is time to give thanks and to recognise all we have received. We do not go back to work, rather we work to go back to the time of Sabbath when we recognise all that is good. Each one of us as individuals and as a community must make time for that which replenishes our souls and nourishes our spirits. Each person will have their own Sabbath rest or joy – it could be a walk through the country, a piece of music, reading a book, playing football, a delicious meal, a visit to family or friends. Sabbath is not an optional extra it is recognizing and giving thanks for the blessings of life itself.
Prints by Andrew Carter - andrew-carter.net
Staying With
We aim to live a way of life that is sustainable and life giving – it must be disciplined enough to give our lives a rhythm and a structure but flexible enough to be able to be integrated into the demands of our different lives without just seeming like something else we have added that will make us busier than ever. In lifestyles that have increasingly demanded we do more things than ever – often at the same time and consequently feel ever more fragmented and distracted. Our promise to stay with calls us to discover a rule of life that is not an added extra but the rhythm in which everything else finds its place. Staying with is about creating a harmony within. It is about establishing the internal patterns that bring balance and healing. And discovering that prayer is as essential as breathing. We often give up the very thing we need most because we fear not being able to do everything else. Staying with helps us see that when we stay with God the things that we really need to do become more possible not less and our way of carrying out our daily duties is also transformed.
View of London from Hampstead Heath photographed by Richard Carter