A Season for Statio
Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting
Pastor Bob Henry
December 8, 2024
Good morning, Friends and welcome to Light Reflections. As we are now in the holiday season, we will be hearing some of the stories from the Christmas story. We start today with the story of Mary visiting Elizabeth in Luke 1:39-56 from the New Revised Standard Version:
In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”
And Mary said (or sang),
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on the lowly state of his servant.
Surely from now on all generations will call me blessed,
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name;
indeed, his mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away empty.
He has come to the aid of his child Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”
And Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home.
This week, I found myself taking a moment to pause. Some may say it was the calm before the storm. As I described in my “As Way Opens” article in our Friend to Friend newsletter this week, we are all in the process of passing the seasonal baton of gratitude to hope. Thanksgiving is over and now we are in the time leading up to Christmas – when we are to prepare our hearts for all that Christ brings into our world.
Yet, I don’t know about you, but it seems that there is little transition anymore – that Christmas comes on like water coming from a fire hose - Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday…Christmas parties, special music and performances, family coming and going…and that is on top of the daily buzz of ordinary life.
We almost don’t have space for Christmas to arrive, so we relegate it to a day and then miss the journey, the process, all that goes into preparing our hearts and lives for this beautiful season.
Folks, our daily lives are made up of moments to be enjoyed — moments of relating with people, working, doing ordinary activities, playing, and fellowshipping. Yet it’s easy to miss the blessings in the moments of our daily lives. Especially at Christmas, when we’re trying to do too much, rushing through the day, worried, distracted, hoping we have everything we need, and all while absorbing the everyday conflict and stress.
In fact, a research study found that at normal times 77% of us are regularly over-stressed and suffering physically as a result (stress.org). Another study found that 31% of us experience an anxiety disorder at some point in our lives (NIMH study). And these numbers all rise during the holidays – specifically the time between Thanksgiving day and Christmas day.
So, this morning, I want to ask us to take a moment to stop, pause, and prepare our hearts and minds for this time. To do that, I would like to introduce you to the spiritual discipline of statio, which I believe enables us to enjoy God’s loving presence during our daily activities and especially during this busy Christmas season. I found the writing of Bill Gaultiere helpful in understanding the practice of statio.
So, what is statio?
Statio is a Latin word for “station,” “position,” or “watch.” It is often described as a holy pause. A simple definition of statio is pausing to be more aware of the Divine.
In contemporary language, statio would be considered a type of mindfulness technique. It’s an unhurried moment to appreciate God’s presence through silence or meditation.
Joan Chittister, a Benedictine nun I enjoy reading, explained, “Statio is a monastic custom… of stopping one thing before we begin another. It is the time between the times” (from Wisdom Distilled From the Daily).
I sense that is not only a wonderful descriptor of this time of year we are in, but also a good reminder for us to stop and pause before we get too wrapped up in all that Christmas entails.
Early Christian disciples developed statio as a practice of pausing to be prayerful during a spiritual pilgrimage, celebration, or meditation.
In the 4th Century, Jerome reported that people from around the world were going on pilgrimage to Jerusalem to walk in Jesus’ steps from his condemnation to the cross.
These pilgrims developed what many Christians (especially Roman Catholics) call the Statio or Stations of the Cross. Where at each station, the pilgrims pause to remember Jesus’ journey and to pray. After this pilgrimage, the powerful practice of statio in the Stations of the Cross was brought back to churches and monasteries.
Statio was also applied to other situations, like arriving early to services in a church or chapel to prepare one’s hearts in devotion. As a child, I was taught the importance of getting to a place early to be prepared for what I was going to experience. Some of you enjoy coming to worship and sitting in silence before worship to prepare yourselves for worship and what the Divine is going to speak to your condition.
This is a very Quaker in nature.
Statio can actually be traced all the way back to the Psalms in our scriptures. I have spoken of this before – this was when the writers who arranged and edited the Psalms just prior to the time of Jesus inserted the word selah 71 times into the text. These selahs are found between verses or even in the middle of sentences. This may have been a time to change instruments, but for the gathered community, selah was an invitation to pause for quiet reflection.
Joan Chittister applies the monastic discipline of statio’s holy pause as an invitation for us to be consciously present to God in the everyday activities of life.
She says, “The practice of statio is meant to center us and make us conscious of what we’re about to do and make us present to the God who is present to us. Statio is the desire to do consciously what I might otherwise do mechanically. Statio is the virtue of presence.” (also from Joan Chittister’s Wisdom Distilled From the Daily.)
For Quakers, I consider one of our forms of statio to be waiting worship or unprogrammed worship. It’s a holy pause in our worship or our week. It allows us to be present to God. And it helps us seek what we are to do.
Pausing and silencing our hearts to be emotionally present to the God who loves and cares for us facilitates our experience of God’s peace and joy. It’s soul medicine for when you are…
Over-stressed
Too busy
Overloaded with information
Missing human touch
Worried or frustrated
Distracted by many things
Pulled into pleasing people
Not being your true self
Disconnected from God’s love
In a hurry
Distracted by the Christmas bustle.
Anyone struggle with anything on that list, especially at this time of year?
The reality is that if you’re in a hurry or too busy, you begin to lose margin (as we say). Work, events, errands, expectations from people, and add that holiday bustle, all get stacked on top of each other until you’re running breathlessly from one thing to the next and missing all that this season or life in general can offer you.
As Dallas Willard famously taught, “You have to ruthlessly eliminate hurry” to grow spiritually and grow in your experience of God’s joy.
I would take that another step, “You have to ruthlessly eliminate hurry in the Christmas season” to experience all that the Divine wants to offer you.
Statio slows you down. It puts spaces for holy pauses in your schedule. It helps you learn to be emotionally present to the God who is always available to love you and guide you.
Waiting worship should not only happen on Sunday mornings or at Monday Meditation, or Unprogrammed Worship on Wednesday nights. We should be pausing in our work, in our families, in times of play whenever the opportunity arises.
Statio is the ongoing and daily discipline we need to stay aware and connected.
By using the holy pause of statio to breathe, meditate, or hold something in the light, you can unclutter the nooks and crannies of your daily life. Statio fills this space with an appreciation of the Divine’s presence and a readiness to join with what the Spirit is doing.
Let me give you some suggestions where I have found statio very helpful.
· (I already noted) Arriving a little early to meetings and events
Walking outside slowly to appreciate the beauty of nature
Saying thank you when someone blesses you
Turning car travel time into a moment with the Divine.
Immediately stopping to hold someone in the Light when you hear they have a need. Instead of saying you will and then forgetting.
Holding someone in the Light while you’re waiting in a line. (Take a moment and hold that check out person in the light, or that mother with the screaming child, or that man stopping for another bottle of booze.
Meditating on a quote, a scripture, a verse while you brush your teeth (maybe even post it to your mirror to remind yourself.)
Singing for joy in the shower or in your car, or some other place where you might be alone.
For us Quakers who love acronyms, I am going to make this even easier. The acronym is STOP (S.T.O.P.) which identifies four mindfulness techniques to help you practice statio during your daily activities:
1. S: Stop what you are doing for a minute or more.
2. T: Take a deep breath to be emotionally present in the moment.
3. O: Observe your thoughts and feelings.
4. P: Pray for and Hold in the Light yours (or someone else’s) needs.
I believe that is exactly what Mary does in our text for today. After hearing the news that she is pregnant, she stops everything she is doing and travels to Elizabeth’s home. She goes in a rush, but then it says she stays for three months. There she spends her time taking deep breaths, observing her thoughts and feelings, and when she finally sings her Magnificat it is prophetic.
I wonder what would happen if we would take a moment to S.T.O.P. in this season and prepare for the Christ-child to be born again in our lives? What if we took a deep breath and were emotionally present in the moment for family and friends? What might we observe or feel that we never have before? And what or whose needs might we hold in the Light this Christmas?
Let’s take some time this morning and S.T.O.P. as we enter waiting worship and ponder those things.
· What would happen if I took a moment to S.T.O.P. in this season and prepare for the Christ-child to be born again in my life?
· What if I took a deep breath and were emotionally present in the moment for family and friends?
· What might I observe or feel that I never have before?
· And what or who might I hold in the Light this Christmas?