The historian says the Essenes worked until the fifth hour and then stopped, washed, and ate. The fellowship cannot stop at mid-morning; most of us have employers. But we have kept the principle, which is that the day has a hinge in its middle as well as at its ends, and that a people who let the day run straight through from waking to sleeping have let it run them. The Noon Peace is a pause of five minutes at midday, and it is the practice of the teaching of the Sevenfold Peace.
The Form
At noon, or at the first moment near it when you can be alone for five minutes, stop. Stand if you can; the body remembers a standing pause better than a seated one. If you can stand in sunlight, do. Breathe three times, slowly.
Then take the peace appointed for the day and ask three questions of it.
- Where is this peace broken in my life right now?
- What is one thing, small enough to do today, that would mend it a little?
- Will I do it?
Answer honestly. Then say the greeting of the Essenes, peace, to yourself and to whoever comes to mind. Then return to the work. The whole thing takes five minutes, and the fellowship has found that it works best when it is not allowed to take longer. A short practice kept is worth more than a long one abandoned.
The Week of Peaces
| Day | The peace | The question beneath the questions |
|---|---|---|
| First day | Peace with the body | Am I giving the body what it needs and no more, and am I listening to it? |
| Second day | Peace with the mind | What am I turning over and over that I could set down? |
| Third day | Peace with the family | Who at my table have I not forgiven, or not asked to forgive me? |
| Fourth day | Peace with humanity | Whom have I made the enemy, and what would it cost to stop? |
| Fifth day | Peace with my heritage | What have my ancestors handed me that I have refused to look at, good or wounded? |
| Sixth day | Peace with the earth | What did I take today that I did not need, and what could I give back? |
| Seventh day | Peace with the Eternal | Where am I still demanding that God be otherwise? |
Why Noon
Because by noon the day has shown its hand. The Morning Watch set a resolve; by noon the student knows whether it has held. The Evening Watch will examine; by noon there is still time to change the day's course. Noon is the hour of correction, the moment when the ship is far enough from port to have drifted and near enough to its destination to be steered. The Essenes stopped at the fifth hour to wash and eat as into a sanctuary. The fellowship stops at the sixth to make one peace.
The Long Work
Done once, the Noon Peace is a pleasant pause. Done for a year, it is a reconstruction. The student who has asked fifty-two times where her peace with the family is broken, and taken fifty-two small steps, has a different family. The student who has asked fifty-two times what he took that he did not need has a different house. The fellowship has seen marriages healed, feuds ended, and lives simplified beyond recognition, not by any great act but by five minutes at noon kept for a year. The ancient Essenes understood that holiness is made of small conduct repeated. So is peace.