Start:Stop - We cry to you Lord

Roy Lichtenstein, Crying Girl, 1963

You can listen to an audio recording of this Start:Stop reflection for St Stephen Walbrook at this link.

Start:Stop - The Weeping Woman

Weeping Woman, Pablo Picasso, 1937

Hello my name is Phillip Dawson, welcome to this week’s Start:Stop reflection from St Stephen Walbrook, in which we stop for a few minutes and start to reflect on a passage from scripture. 

One of the (many) anxieties I had while exploring the possibility of training for the priesthood was ‘crying on the job’. The nervousness that the upper lip will go limp just at that moment when people are looking for a sign of strength, not sadness. I’d been in the choir, or acted as verger at several funerals and found it hard to hold back the tears; unlike our vicar who always seemed to maintain his composure (during the service at least). But when the tiny coffin of a child – Gabriella – was carried through the church, I looked up and saw him wipe away a tear. Some time afterwards, I realised how senseless my anxiety had been; that one silent tear spoke to me more loudly than any words could have done; and I heard it.

Songs for Suffering - Psalm 6

The first telephone used by The Samaritans, on display at St Stephen Walbrook, where the organisation began

How long?
Time
Stops.
Life & love leached through red eyes.
Drained from my nose.
And even that's clear - nothing of substance!
Suffocating in my swollen face.
The cracked voice of a broken body gives
One
Last
Hoarse
Cry.

Save me.

What changed?
He listened.

(A paraphrase of Psalm 6)