Andrew Mayes Gateways to the Divine

 


‘The Via Dolorosa … is crossed by Jewish Orthodox hurrying down to prayer at the Western Wall, and at the same time it witnesses Muslim men kneeling on their mats at the time of prayer in their shops. It passes a place for the rehabilitation of blind refugees and others with disabilities. Along its route today are found soldiers, beggars, pilgrims, and tourists; street sellers, laughing children, and disabled elderly. This river of prayer and passion flows in the broken heart of the city, as a potential source of healing and forgiveness’. In such words Andrew Mayes takes us to the Jerusalem he is familiar with, its prayer and passion, opening up testimonies across faiths using the city gates as a device to frame a book on transformative spirituality. It works at different levels, guide book of Jerusalem, chronicle of salvation history, study of interfaith relations and celebration of missionary spirituality. 

Each chapter links to a gate of Jerusalem - Golden, Southern, Zion, New, Herod’s, Lions’, Damascus and Jaffa - ending with reflections and spiritual exercises suited for individuals and groups. We start with the sealed Golden Gate and the invitation to unblock prejudice against other faiths and be open to their spiritual riches especially faiths under the patronage of Abraham. Fr Mayes builds from knowledge of Christian spirituality across traditions and firsthand experience of the joys and sorrows of Jerusalem. His book contains stories from residents across faiths under his theme of exploring gateways to the divine. We hear from practitioners of Jewish and Muslim tradition as well as Christians practising in Armenian, Syriac, Franciscan and Orthodox traditions. In a moving chapter, somewhat captured in the quotation above, the author reflects on the hopes and heartaches of those living on the way of sorrow associated with Christ’s crucifixion. The book provides a confident, challenging exploration of contrasting spiritualities identifying common themes like the invocation of divine names, divinization within mortality, the importance of the heart, the role of the body in prayer and the relationship between the mystical and prophetic. 

The first spiritual exploration is of the Jewish tradition and particularly Kabbalah, literally ‘that which is received’ with its invitation to ponder the mystery of creation. We read how ‘Kabbalist Isaac Luria (1534–1572) taught that in the mystery of creation, God poured his divine light into vessels over the world. These could not contain the effulgence of God’s presence and shattered into many fragments, trapping sparks of the divine light amid their shards as they fell to earth. It is the vocation of humanity, taught Luria, to release and unlock these holy sparks amid the world’s brokenness and return them to God through prayer and service. We are to discover the hidden presences of God amid the world’s mire. We must discern opportunities for “gathering the sparks”- taking small steps to release the trapped glimmers of light that lie half buried in the dust of the world’s confusions’. Fr Mayes ponders how God’s light glints around us inviting us into ‘a divine-human synergy’. In the section on Syriac tradition, the author mentions Saint Ephrem who encourages prayer for a ‘luminous eye’ to see God in all things in these words: ‘Let our prayer be a mirror, Lord, placed before your face; Then your fair beauty will be imprinted on its luminous surface’. Orthodox spirituality celebrates the dazzling light of Christ’s Transfiguration with wisdom on spirituality as being about transformation. ‘To see the divine light with bodily sight, as the disciples saw it on Mount Tabor, we must participate in and be transformed by it, according to our capacity. Mystical experience implies this change in our nature, its transformation by grace’ (Vladimir Lossky). One of the most powerful ceremonies in Jerusalem is a telling liturgy of light. The Holy Fire ceremony in the Church of the Resurrection takes place every Easter when the Armenian and Greek patriarchs enter Christ’s tomb emerging with a fire that spreads ultimately across the Christian world. Keeping the flame of faith burning in a Holy Land more and more denuded of Christians is a contemporary challenge.

The Franciscan Order plays a key role in maintaining Christian worship in Jerusalem not least processions along the Via Dolorosa. ‘What was it about the cross that so transfixed Francis? He glimpsed that God himself comes to share and transfigure our pain. God is not immune from suffering - he freely chooses to embrace it, and to transform it from the inside - not from the outside as some external power reaching down from the balcony of heaven, but as one of us. “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows” (Isa 53:4). In his Testament Francis put it this way: “It was the Father’s will that his blessed and glorious Son, whom he gave to us and who was born for our sake, should offer himself . . . leaving us an example that we may follow in his steps (1 Pet 2:21) . . . how peaceful, delightful, loveable and desirable above all things it is to have a Brother like this!” Any Christian visitor to Jerusalem is drawn into contemplation of Christ’s suffering, death and resurrection and is aided by such Franciscan insight. At the end of his chapter on the Lions’ Gate, Andrew Mayes provides his own moving version of the Stations of the Cross, which in Jerusalem are led from that gate to the sites of Calvary and Christ’s tomb.

In this book we are carried along by a tour of faiths in parallel with one of Jerusalem. Fr Mayes underlines devotion to the names of God across faiths. ‘In the Hebrew tradition, to do a thing in the name of another, or to invoke and call upon his name, are acts of weight and potency. To invoke a person’s name is to make that person effectively present . . . The power and glory of God are present and active in his Name . . . attentively and deliberately to invoke God’s Name is to place oneself in his presence, to open oneself to his energy, to offer oneself as an instrument and a living sacrifice in his hands’ (Kallistos Ware). We are reminded how the repetition in the Jesus Prayer of Orthodoxy of the name of Jesus has some parallel with Sufi practice of reciting the name Allah and how this spiritual practice can make God present to the one who prays. Such making present of God is transformative not just of the believer but of the world through their active involvement there. ‘Mystical notions without a solid social and missionary outreach are of no help to evangelization . . . What is needed is the ability to cultivate an interior space which can give a Christian meaning to commitment and activity’ (Pope Francis). 

‘Gateways to the Divine’ is a profound exploration of both the soul of Jerusalem and the human soul and how we get transformed into what we were made to be. This accessible book informs us about age old Christian disciplines, invites us to build friendship across faiths, and gives a reminder that God has shown his face in Jerusalem for the good of the world so the missionary component of faith remains as vital as ever.

Canon John Twisleton                    23 January 2021 


Andrew Mayes  Gateways to the Divine

Transformative Pathways of Prayer from the Holy City of Jerusalem

Cascade Books 2020 £17 ISBN 978-1725260412 170pp


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