SSSSSSHH! Learning to be still this Lent by Michelle Tan

5 March 2025

SSSSSSHH! Learning to be still this Lent by Michelle Tan

“The Lord will fight for you. You have only to be still.” (Exodus 14:14)

A dead end and a death end – pinned between the armies of Pharoah behind them, and the waters of the Red Sea before them – the Israelites, who had been liberated from slavery in Egypt by the hand of God, “were in great fear.”

And they said to Moses “What have you done to us, in bringing us out of Egypt? Is not this what we said to you in Egypt, ‘Let us alone and let us serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” And Moses said to the people, ‘Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of

the LORD, which he will work for you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The LORD will fight for you; you have only to be still.’” (Exodus 14:11-14)

What fears and anxieties, or complaints and questions, might we bringing to the Lord as we enter the season of Lent?

Do we see dead ends looming on the horizon, even so early in the school year, juggling our daily grind as educators with the toil of fulfilling obligations towards family and Church? Do we find ourselves trapped between obeying the commandments of God, and caving in to conform to the views the secular world which we know are against the teachings of Christ and his Church? Why didn’t God just “let us alone and let us serve the world?” Perhaps it would have been better for us to gain the whole world and forfeit our lives….

When we are overwhelmed, it is often easy for us to forget, like the Israelites, that God is always with his people. “The Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night; the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.” (Exodus 13:21-22)

We need only be still to recognise his presence, and let him fight all our battles for us. But how?

The Cathedral of the Good Shepherd’s Vice-Rector Fr Samuel Lim gave some insights when he unpacked the Gospel account of the wedding at Cana in John 2:1-11 from the perspective of prayer. It reads:

There was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.

I have summarised the gist of Fr Samuel’s homily in an acronym: SSSSSSHH!

S: Set aside a dedicated time and place to meet the Lord in your schedule: mark this appointment with Him in your calendar as you would a VIP visit, or an invitation to an important meeting or occasion, such as a wedding;

S: Sit and be with Him – as Our Lady was at the side of Jesus at Cana – in a comfortable position before g. the Blessed Sacrament, a crucifix, candle, icon, or other holy image, and preferably in a sacred place e.g. in your school chapel, grotto or home altar;

S: Still yourself as best you can – you could listen to a song such as the one linked to the QR code at right, or some other appropriate hymn or worship song, to quieten your soul;

S: Speak to the Lord, bringing your need to him in communion and conversation, but simply and succinctly, like Mother Mary told Jesus: “They have no wine”. E.g. “Lord, I am running on empty; I have run out of wine. Help me, Jesus.After all, he knows our needs already: “The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And before him no creature is hidden, but all are open and laid bare to his eyes … Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:12-13, 16). But he still wants us to come to him;At the end of your quiet time, whether or not you felt you have received anything from him;
S: Surrender your need to the Lord, trusting in his promise: “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with When you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart, I will let you find me, says the Lord.” (Jeremiah 29:11-13)I find praying The Surrender Novena very useful at this stage, especially with a rosary. Sometimes, in particular desperate situations, I pray all 9 prayers in a row at one sitting, but otherwise, I pray one prayer a day for 9 days, which helps me set a routine.The words of the Novena are very wise e.g. they remind me not to tell God how to answer my prayers (as if God didn’t know better): “You are not sick people who ask the doctor to cure you, but rather sick people who tell the doctor how to!”
And “It is like the confusion that children feel when they ask their mother to see to their needs, and then try to take care of those needs for themselves so that their childlike efforts get in their mother’s way…”

The Novena explains: “Surrender means to placidly close the eyes of the soul, to turn away from thoughts of tribulation, and to put yourself in God’s care, saying, “Lord, you take care of it.”

H: Hear and resolve to obey what He is inviting you to do next, even though it may not make Our Lady told the servants at Cana: “Do whatever he tells you”, and they did so unquestioningly, even though they might have wondered how filling up the purification jars with water might solve the wine shortage issue, and how the steward would have reacted if they brought plain water for him to taste! Nevertheless, they obeyed Jesus wholeheartedly, not just merely filling the jars partially, but “to the brim”.As Scripture tells us: “Trust in the Lord with all your hearts, lean not on your own understanding, but in all your ways submit to him, and he will make straight your paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6);

H: Honour and praise the Lord for spending this time with you, no matter how short or unproductive you might have thought it The Capuchin friar Blessed Solanus Casey, OFM Cap loved to say: “Thank God ahead of time!” Give God the time and space to fight your battles for you; then

! Wait in expectant faith for the miracles to happen! Meanwhile, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you The LORD will fight for you; you have only to be still.” (Exodus 14:13-14)And as at the wedding at Cana, Mary, the Mother of God, intercedes for us: let us turn to her too. She is the model of being still and SSSSSSHH!16th C French Bishop Jean-Pierre Camus wrote: “What shall give you patience and endurance when you are wearied out with the length of conffict with evil, with the unceasing necessity of precautions, with the irksomeness of observing them, with the tediousness of repetition, with the strain upon your mind, and with your forlorn and cheerless condition, but a loving communion with Our Lady! What will bring you to yourselves, to peace and to health, but the cool breath of the Immaculate!

May the sign of the cross on our foreheads this Ash Wednesday remind us of the 5 Essential Marks of our Catholic schools, the banner of trust and faith in God we are called to carry to as Pilgrims of Hope in this great Jubilee Year, and the lens of faith we should see through to give us that supernatural vision to see the Way ahead.

This season of Lent, may we turn our hearts and minds over to God in prayer and intercession, fasting from the world, and giving the alms of quality time to the Lord and his creation, especially our loved ones and those whom the Holy Spirit prompts us to reconnect or reconcile with.

And every time we tell our children to SSSSSSHH! may we be prompted to do so ourselves!

“Pray, hope, and don’t worry. Worry is useless. God is merciful and will hear your prayer.” (St Padre Pio)