Lewis comments on the seeming suffering in prayer: “And one prays but mainly such prayers as are themselves a form of anguish.” When our prayers just seem to bounce back to us from the surrounding walls, the room seems smaller still and the ricocheting pleas wound us further. Reflecting on his own experience of sorrow, C.S. Then, even our prayers - our attempts to communicate with the “outside” - can add to our pain. It is perhaps most difficult to reach beyond our tiny, bare-walled rooms, to hope for anything or Anyone beyond those walls, in times of suffering and anguish. But that someone - or Someone - is all-important.

We are briefly reassured: someone is out there. A voice comes back a message of encouragement - or even criticism - the important thing is the response. Then, every so often, there is a response, faint though it might be. But on other occasions, the progress is awkward and we cannot even begin to imagine what might lie beyond the blank walls in which we are encased. Perhaps sometimes the best arises from spontaneity. We can try to prepare for the communication but - as often as not - it might be just as well to make it up in the moment. Through a process and technology we barely understand, we try to reach out to the unseen listener. We seat ourselves alone - perhaps in a small room - and talk to the wall in the hope that someone, somewhere, is listening.

Avowed rep