Keeping Vigil

By Cathy Ramsey

Mount of Olives, in East Jerusalem

Lent is a traditional time for keeping vigil—an attentive openness to the work of God in our lives and throughout the world. But what does it mean to keep vigil today, when most of us no longer adhere to the strict discipline of late-night prayer?

Scripture Reading: Luke 22:39-46 (NLT)   Jesus Prays on the Mount of Olives

Then, accompanied by the disciples, Jesus left the upstairs room and went as usual to the Mount of Olives. There He told them, “Pray that you will not give in to temptation.”

He walked away, about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed. “Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” Then an angel from Heaven appeared and strengthened Him. He prayed more fervently, and He was in such agony of spirit that His sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood.

At last, He stood up again and returned to the disciples, only to find them asleep, exhausted from grief. “Why are you sleeping?” He asked them. “Get up and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation.”

Heather Hughes explores three features of the practice of vigil that make it important for our discipleship not only during Lent, but also through the Church year.

 • The enhanced awareness typical of late-night wakefulness. Think of waking up in the middle of the night when noises sound louder and you are hyper-sensitive to your surroundings. Intentional times of vigil employ this nighttime alertness to become more attentive to God’s presence in the world. Thomas Merton notes the link between enhanced sensory awareness and the spiritual attentiveness characteristic of keeping vigil. In “Fire Watch,” he reports that guarding his monastery from fire through the night became “an examination of conscience in which your task of watchman suddenly appears in its true light: a pretext devised by God to isolate you, and to search your soul with lamps and questions, in the heart of darkness.” Keeping vigil is never an end in itself; it facilitates this kind of encounter with the living God.

• The responsibility of being fully present. Keeping vigil engages our natural bodily response to moments of intense love, fear, sorrow, compunction, or awe. At a loved one’s deathbed we cannot sleep or eat as the gravity of the situation overrides our basic physical needs. Our sense of what is truly important impels us to be fully present, without seeking distraction or escape. Likewise, keeping spiritual vigil cultivates our sensitivity to what is most significant in life—reminding us that we do not live by bread alone. We are fully present before God, as we are with loved ones in times of suffering or joy.

 • Complete obedience to God’s will. Christ’s praying in Gethsemane is the pattern for our keeping vigil. As he is fully present to the Father, he discerns the Father’s will through prayer and maintains obedience to the point of death. Like the disciples in Gethsemane, we are called to pray with Christ—to stay spiritually awake and to keep watch in compunction for our own sin and sorrow for the world’s need. This is not an easy task, as even the disciples abandoned Christ, falling asleep from grief.

Hughes commends practices to help us to keep vigil—ancient disciplines like corporate prayer, fasting, almsgiving, examination of conscience, and lectio divina, and creative activities like fasting from artificial light or committing to draw or write.

Lent is a special time to keep vigil. As with Christ in Gethsemane, we have the agony of apprehending, wrestling with, and accepting God’s saving will for the world and for our individual lives. We are given the opportunity to become fully awake to a world that requires Golgotha (Calvary), but is also given the empty tomb.

The Prayer of St. Ephraim

O Lord and Master of my life, give me not a spirit of sloth, vain curiosity, lust for power, and idle talk. But give to me, thy servant, a spirit of soberness, humility, patience, and love. O Lord and King, grant me to see my own faults and not to condemn my brother; for blessed are thou to the ages of ages. Amen

Rarely Herd sings a beautiful piece about Jesus:

https://youtu.be/Xi5VwzIGrxk

Resource: Christian Reflection A Series in Faith and Ethics. Heather Hughes, the author of this study guide, serves as Publication Specialist and Project Coordinator of the Center for Christian Ethics at Baylor University. © 2013 The Center for Christian Ethics.  www.baylor.edu;