"The Sabbath is a sanctuary in time."
This from Abraham Joshua Heschel from his book "The Sabbath". THis quote guides me everyday. The Sabbath is marked by time on both sides but is outside time. His book talks a lot about this.
Do you know that poem by TS Eliot? Burnt Norton? I don't even pretend to really understand what it is about but this portion caught my imagination in high school and then added to my thoughts on Shabbat.
Is being outside time being in the present? All I know is that on Shabbat when I can unplug and experience the day fully I have felt that shift of being in a timeless place and that helps me daven better. I don't always get there though.
BUIRNT NORTON
(No. 1 of 'Four Quartets')
T.S. Eliot
I
Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable.
What might have been is an abstraction
Remaining a perpetual possibility
Only in a world of speculation.
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.
Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage which we did not take
Towards the door we never opened
Into the rose-garden. My words echo
Thus, in your mind.