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.”