2010-06

P
HYSICAL exercise and a life of
prayer may not seem to go
together (unless going down on
your knees could be considered a
form of exercise).
Yet there is in fact a long tradition
of physical exertion and prayer. One
of the most obvious examples of this
is the practice of pilgrimage. From
the early Middle Ages onwards
people would travel as far as a
thousand miles to visit the shrine of a
saint in order to pray for healing, give
thanks to God or repent of some
wrong doing. A skeleton excavated in
Worcester Cathedral in the 1980s
revealed a medieval pilgrim dressed
in walking boots and coat who had
apparently walked all the way to
Santiago de la Compostella in Spain
and back – and picked
up two arrow wounds for
his trouble.
The monks of the
medieval monasteries
also had a strong prayerwork
ethic, believing that
hard work on the soil
went hand in hand with
saying their prayers. The
combination of hard work
and a better than Whirlow Grange
average diet meant that
the monks of a thousand years ago
were among the healthiest people of
their time. I’m not sure the same
could be said of vicars today.
Today many people still go on
pilgrimage – the journey over the
Pyrenees to Santiago de la
Compostella remains a very popular
route for people of all faiths and none
– but the link between physical work
and prayer is less common. That
being said many Christians still find it
useful to take themselves out of
“normal” life for a period in order to
undertake spiritual “exercises” in
which both the body and the spirit are
focussed on meeting with God.
These exercises might involve
fasting for a period from food or they
might involve a prayer vigil throughout
the night. Many people spend some
time – hours or days – in a retreat
centre which specially caters for such
times.
We are fortunate living in this part
of Sheffield that we have many
opportunities to take ourselves briefly
out of daily life to spend time finding
God. Walking around Beauchief or
Ecclesall Woods can be a great way
of lifting us out of ourselves and
starting to pray. The nearby Peaks
are also great places to walk and pray
in.
If you are interested in the idea of
going to a retreat centre for a day
then you might want to try out
Whirlow Grange (www.whirlow
grange.co.uk) which is the Diocese of
Sheffield’s retreat centre just off
Ecclesall Road South. Whirlow
Grange can offer residential retreats
for those with the time to really step
away from it all, but perhaps more
practically for most of us there are
quiet days with a simple lunch
provided on the third Tuesday of
every month. These days are an
ideal opportunity to examine the
shape of your spiritual life and to meet
with God in a way that isn’t always
possible in the rush of our busy lives.
You might even want to walk there!
Rev Toby Hole
St Chads Church, Linden Avenue, Woodseats
email: office@stchads.org
Church Offices: 15 Camping Lane, Sheffield S8 0GB Page 15 website: www.stchads.org
Tel: (0114) 274 5086