Gentle Invitations

There is nothing like a surprise invitation to dine or spend time with a person who is gentle and wise and the conversation brings hope, laughter and life. Surprises like this open the windows of the soul with a most tender drawing back of our reserve and timidity, letting us experience the Light of Holy Presence.

When we walk into Sacred Space with purpose and intent, at least for me, I come with expectancy, with a desire to wait and see what will be shown and experienced. There is an intangible aroma that, like the air being filled with the scent of cooking onions, hints that there is much more to come and your appetite is awakened.

Using the illustrations of food comes easiest for me as that is my medium of art. I have been thinking much about how sacred space invites us to more than the banquet table of feasting and sharing – it invites us to make choices, to choosing what is good, what is healthy, what honors and gives respect. We are also, it seems, invited into the mystery of God. Perhaps that is why the scent of food is an illustration that gives the idea – the mystery of something being prepared but not all the ingredients are in the scent that fills the air! We wonder, we seek, we yearn, and we want to know more, while at the same time we simply wish to sink into this moment of sacredness, of experiencing the Almighty with our senses.

When our friends from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES) come to visit us the effect of this space of beauty and sacredness we call Linwood House (Linwood House Ministries) is startling. When a meal of tasty combinations of meat, potatoes/and or rice, vegetables, and salads that are an abundant mixture of fresh greens and textures are laid, there is a choice made (probably unconsciously) for more of the healthy ingredients. Is it just the contrast between the colourless, flavourless, starchy, processed food that is served in the downtown community (and I have stayed down there for a week and eaten this food), or is it that Sacred Space (and the presence of the Almighty), tenderly extends the invitation to choose the healthy ingredients?

Living in a community that exists on survival mode leaves one constantly watchful, self protecting, in the “fight or flight” mode – an energy sapping life-style indeed. After several visits to Linwood House, our friends from the DTES begin to offer gentleness to each other, to let their guard down and their suspiciousness changes to an openness that is magnificently endearing.

So what else does Sacred Space invite us to? Does it go beyond our relationships with each other to respect for creation, our environment, and our neighbour who we are asked to love as well as we love ourselves? Does not Sacred Space invite us with constant whispers to learn to love who we are and our own story?

What are the surprise invitations that you have experienced in Sacred Space? Who have you met when you responded to these gentle openings of your heart? Every invitation I have responded to (and sometimes I have ignored the invitation) has revealed something of beauty and also created a deeper space for Holy Wisdom and the Mystery to live in my soul.

The following words, pieces of Psalm 90 in the translation Praying the Psalms by Nan Merrill, seem to beautifully hold out an invitation to Sacred Space and to what it offers those who accept.

“You gather those who love You as friends returning from a long journey, giving rest to their souls.
You anoint them with the balm of understanding, healing wounds of the past.
For our days on Earth are a mystery, a searching for You, a yearning for the great Mystery to make itself known.
The years pass and soon the Harvest is at hand, a time to reap the fruit of one’s life.
Who has lived with integrity?
Who will reflect the Light?
Who can bear the radiant beams of Love?

…Teach us, O Beloved, to honor each day that we may have a heart of wisdom.”

Thoughts on Open Heart, Alive Senses, Peace

Recently my husband D and I were at the Thomas Merton Society "Conference for Peace - non-violence". John Dear, SJ was the main speaker for this event.

While it was focused on non-violence, peace, and how as Christians we are called to be peace-makers, my thoughts continued to focus on the fact that we cannot be peacemakers, work at non-violence effectively unless we begin to look at the internal war, the internal violence we inflict upon ourselves so regularly!

Jesus said "Blessed are the peace makers" or as it is translated in The Message (Matthew 5:8)

"You're blessed when you get your inside world - your mind and heart -
put right. Then you can see God in the outside world."

This translation by Eugene Peterson seems to point toward the fact that peacemakers have an internal peace, an internal home, an internal place of freedom and comfort for the Spirit with much room, and then they can not only see God in the outside world, but they begin to be God in the world around them.

So this then has triggered for me the connection to internal peace and living with our senses alive - to taste, see, hear, smell, touch life around us and within us!

This morning I read from Seeds, Thomas Merton passages and find the connection to my thoughts expanding.

"One of the most important - and most neglected - elements in the beginnings of the interior life is the ability to respond to reality, to see the value and the beauty in ordinary things, to come alive to the splendor that is all around us in the creatures of God. We do not see these things because we have withdrawn from them. In a way we have to. In modern life our senses are so constantly bombarded with stimulation from every side that unless we developed a kind of protective insensibility we would go crazy trying to respond to all the advertisements at the same time!

The first step in the interior life, nowadays, is not, as some might imagine, learning NOT to see and taste and hear and feel things. On the contrary, what we must do is begin by unlearning our wrong ways of seeing, tasting, feeling, and so forth, and acquire a few of the right ones.

For asceticism is not merely a matter of renouncing television, cigarettes and gin. Before we can begin to be ascetics, we first have to learn to see life as if it were something more than a hypnotizing telecast. And we must be able to taste something besides tobacco and alcohol: we must perhaps even be able to taste these luxuries themselves as if they too were good.

How can our conscience tell us whether or not we are renouncing things unless it first tells us that how to use them properly? For renunciation is not an end in itself: it helps us to use things better. It helps us to give them away. If reality revolts us, if we merely turn away from it in digust, to whom shall we sacrifice it? How shall we consecrate it? How shall we make of it a gift to God and to men?"
(NM 33-34)from page 15, Seeds

I cannot help but see how my quest to bring my own senses alive is connected to many other levels of how Jesus has asked me to live. I cannot help but ask today how does a culinary minister be a carrier of life and be a peace maker as I interact with those who come to the sacred table? How do I hold life within my wombless body, how do I not do violence to my own soul in order to allow the peace and powerful presence of the Spirit to bring colour, flavour, scent, texture, taste, hope and wonder to the table where meals are shared?

Tending to the restoration of my own sensuality, embracing that I am so, on my own individually, and letting my heart and soul continue to dance in a vibrant way, a renewed and restored way is one important factor to seek. Perhaps this is a key to this year's pilgrimage theme - no longer going to war with my own self.

Holy Mystery, Community, Solitude

The old words “there is a time and place for everything” come as I write the above words. Who determines that time and place and whether it is good, wise, acceptable and life giving?

“Holy Mystery” is a place that my soul seeks for rest, for learning, for embrace, to come more deeply into relationship with the Almighty. One writer speaks of peoples reaction to one of Jesus healing miracles, life back from death stories: “They all realized they were in a place of holy mystery, that God was at work among them. They were quietly worshipful…” Luke 7:16 The Message

This experience of Holy Mystery was in community, or rather in a group place which isn’t necessarily community.

Holy Mystery is an experience that, for me personally, comes more often in solitude, in the cathedral God first gave us - Creation. Where the awe and intricacy of creation, the majesty of nature and the humbling knowledge that this goes so far beyond what one can see, touch, taste, hear, smell, experience from where I stand.. Being surrounded by love yet unable to express how deep and authentic it feels in this place deepens how mysterious living really is.

Good Friday is the day of mourning for Christians, when Jesus was crucified and the world went dark. Many gather in community to sit together with this truth and remember this part of Jesus journey.

I have not been able to understand why, for me, these events are much more deeply meaningful when I remain in solitude. A friend was sharing how they struggled with guilt at choosing solitude on Easter morning instead of community. Solitude presented the gift of experiencing Holy Mystery - Holy Presence that is unexplainable yet continues to call out to the soul for endless pursuit.

|On Good Friday my husband went off to the mid-day service at church and I remained at home. The day was sunny with a gentle wind and the spring air was inviting. I ventured out, rake in hand, to clear up old leaves around the labyrinth and on the path that meanders through our property. Soon this quiet slow task became a holy task, caring for this sacred ground we call home, where others can come for a contemplative meditative walk - our labyrinth. The old leaves are colourless and heavy yet when they are gathered up and heaped in the compost pile fresh new life, tender colours of new growth are waiting within the ground to be revealed and breathe again. Death is heavy and colourless - life is full of colour and absolutely longs to breathe and be visible again! In this solitudinal task, removing death to find life, my tears began to come for reasons I cannot explain, except that I held my face to the Light, up to the gentle wind, to acknowledge Holy Presence and to listen for the gentle teaching of the Spirit as I worked. The deep wind chimes gave out their throaty melody and all nature seemed to be gently sighing in its own way at the acknowledgement of spring after winter, life out of death, and Light that comes through the darkness. It was a place of holy mystery, the Almighty was present and at work and I felt my whole being come alive with quiet worship.

God is present in our community spaces and God is present in our solitude space and each hold space for the Holy Mystery, Holy Presence to be explored and for us to pursue what this looks like in our lives. Life out of death, spring out of winter, light out of darkness, melodies out of wailing, Holy Presence in the midst of its mystery.

Being Salt, Growing Life

A little over a year ago my friend, visiting from across the country, brought me these gifts - a jar of yeast and a jar of salt (which has since been used so you see a packet instead). She had no idea why she bought them yet knew it was necessary. I had no idea why she gave them yet I knew there was a message they would show me and then remind me of constantly. Salt is a preservative and a seasoning, while yeast is what allows the bread to rise and be voluminous and become comfort food we so often seek.

Yet, what did these two ingredients have to do with loving to cook, loving to invite others to dine at the old antique table, and sacredness that belongs to this individuals' pilgrimage?

We have become part of a new book club and the first get together was at our home. The antique table that makes such a statement in this little house in the woods, was spread out, all 3 leaves added to it and 10 of us were seated there. Once the table is spread out it fills just about all of our dining/living room area! Over the course of 4 hours food was consumed, wine was poured, all the while seasoned with animated conversation that ranged from areas of justice, environmental concerns to each person being asked, and answering the question “how did your parents influence the direction of your life in the high school years and were they involved in the decisions you made? Where they supportive of what you chose to do?”.

In the holding of the question and the answering that came thoughtfully and at times painfully, one could hear pieces of another’s’ sacred and precious life journey. The table once again became the sacred space that held the salt of seasoning and the grains of healing journeys. Animated conversation was woven with hushed speaking when deeply personal moments were laid before this new group. The salt could be tasted in each story, and as in the Seder Supper tradition, the salt water with bitter herbs is a reminder of the tears of the journey. There was much symbolic salt in our evening.

As the guests left and we cleared up the dishes, as I stood alone at the sink late in the evening washing the wine glasses and pondering, I thought of the spaces, empty spaces in many of our lives where we long for this kind of intimate dialogue yet rarely find it. The places where we could love, grow and experience the comfort this affords us, almost like the symbolic comfort food that bread is. Where the yeast has done its work to provide the necessary working to bring us this light, sustaining, food of comfort and life - the bread of life which is an essential for us to live. Safe places to verbalize ideas, to be seen and heard and honoured are a kind of bread of life to the soul and spirit. They are the places that Holy Presence comes with fragrance, salt and yeast.

The Sacred Table must always hold space for the salt of healing, seasoning and preservation (holding with honor and giving dignity) as well as the yeast the provides the necessary combination and action to give us the comfort food, this bread of life that comes in surprising ways to feed us. How each person will taste or see it will be unique to where they are, but if it is an essential piece of the ritual of dining there will be an effect.