Our Lives May Need Tuning Up

Some time ago, while on a holiday weekend in London, I set out to go to one of my favourite churches in London, St Martin in the Fields. Over the last few years, it has offered me a quiet, prayerful space to begin my holiday. That morning, as I entered the church, I realised that it was not going to be such a quiet experience. At the front of the church, there was a big grand piano. Sitting or, rather, kneeling at it was a piano tuner. He was at his work, repeatedly striking one note and making minuscule changes in its pitch by … well, I’m not sure how he worked his magic! 

I took my seat and closed my eyes, and I tried to pray. But the notes, the notes kept coming. I found it hard to ignore them in favour of my prayers.

After a while, I found that I let myself get caught up in the notes and in the

changes in pitch that I could just about make out. The sharp notes came down

in pitch. The flat ones went up. It became a way for me to pray.

In that prayer, it struck me that there are many ways that we can be a bit out

of tune in our lives. There are areas that are flat, where we experience a sense of being down, sad, low or lacking in energy. There are also areas of our lives where we are sharp, with ourselves and with others, too. In this way, we can be out of tune with ourselves and with others. We may need tuning up so that we can live harmoniously with ourselves, with others and with God’s plan for us. God, through prayer, wants to connect with us.
Brendan McManus SJ and Jim Deeds, Emerging from the Mess