Warm sunshine merrying over the sea. The nickel shavingbowl shone, forgotten, on the parapet. Why should I bring it down? Or leave it there all day, forgotten friendship? He went over to it, held it in his hands awhile, feeling its coolness, smelling the clammy slaver of the lather in which the brush was stuck. So I carried the boat of incense then at Clongowes. I am another now and yet the same. A servant too. A server of a servant.
From “Ulysses” by James Joyce
This is from the beginning of Ulysses, which opens on the roof of a fortress built to guard Dublin from continental invaders, now home to a group of young men, including Stephen Dedalus, whose thoughts we read here. The man who was shaving, Buck Mulligan, had gone down indoors, leaving his shaving paraphernalia for Stephen to pick up.
‘Why should I bring it down?’ Friendship, but reluctant friendship after Mulligan’s teasing a few minutes before. Still, he brings it down, with an access of memory of his schooldays at Clongowes, where he served at Mass, carrying the boat for the priest to spoon grains of incense onto burning charcoal.
Another man now? Yes, but the same. And his vocation in the present moment is to carry his friend’s bowl downstairs and to be reminded of his youthful ministry at the altar. Spending some moments with that image is a Spirit-led time of prayer, what Marie Curie called the sacrament of the present moment.
Let’s pray for the grace to recognise the prayers that the Spirit is ready to share with us in the daily round of duties, pleasures, trials and encounters.
agnellusmirror 