They shall be like a tree planted by water,
sending out its roots by the stream.
It shall not fear when the heat comes,
and its leaves shall stay green;
in the year of drought it is not anxious,
and it does not cease to bear fruit.
Jeremiah 17:8
As we come to the end of Week 3 of our Lenten retreat, how has it been for you to consider slowing down... to take a pause, and breathe? to make space to open and expand, rather than our usual rushing, clenching and constricting?
The 12th century Benedictine nun and abbess, St. Hildegard of Bingen, calls herself a “feather on the breath of God.” What a lovely image of responding delicately to the movement of God. What might help you respond with greater sensitivity to the breathing of God in you and around you?
Music: Slow Down by Sissel: https://youtu.be/EFe84U__kt8 (The cathedral setting of this piece is quite elaborate, so you may want to listen with your eyes closed if you find the background distracting. Or try it both ways.)
Trust in the Slow Work of God
Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are, quite naturally, impatient in everything to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages,
We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new.
And yet, it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through some stages of instability --
and that it may take a very long time.
And so it is I think with you.
Your ideas mature gradually -- let them grow,
let them shape themselves without undue haste.
Don’t try to force them on,
as though you could be today what time
(that is to say, grace and circumstances acting on your own good will)
will make of you tomorrow.
Only God could say what this new spirit
gradually forming within you will be.
Give our Lord the benefit of believing
that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete.
(Teilhard de Chardin)
Creative Suggestion(s): For our Thursday creative invitation, I suggest two things that might help to slow our hurried minds and lives: 1) making a cup of tea and 2) creating/walking the labyrinth. You could choose one - or both.
Making tea: In "The Book of Awakening" Mark Nepo suggests a way of brewing tea both as a metaphor and actual process for being more present to our lives. He writes,
"If we stop to truly consider it, making tea is a miraculous process. First small leaves are gathered from plants that grow from unseen roots. Then boiling water is drained through the dried leaves. Finally, allowing the mixture to steep creates an elixir that, when digested, can be healing.
The whole process is a model for how to make inner use of our daily experience. For isn’t making tea the way we cipher through the events of our lives? Isn’t the work of sincerity to pour our deepest attention over the dried bits of our days? Isn’t patience the need to let the mixture of inner and outer brew until the lessons are fragrant and soothing on the throat?
...None of these elements alone can produce tea. Likewise, only by using them together, can we make tea of our days and our sincerity and our patience. And none of it is healing without a willingness to drink from the tea of our life."
Take some time to slowly, and with care, make a cup of tea.
As the tea seeps, reflect on the pieces of your life this day. Be open and patient.
Sip slowly, feel the warm liquid flow down your throat, smell the fragrance lifting towards your face. Allow gratitude to fill and bless you as you drink.
Labyrinth:
The labyrinth is a sacred place set aside to reflect, look within, pray, and be inspired. The turns of the labyrinth encourage us to slow our natural tendency to rush toward some end goal or destination. Instead we trust that each step of our journey is where we need to be at that moment.
The path into the center can be viewed as a time of releasing - to share honestly with God those things you are carrying that feel heavy and burdensome. In the center is a place of receiving: allow God to give you what you need most -- perhaps a feeling of peace, or a word, or an image. You can ask God for what you need or simply pause and rest... Returning, we carry what we have received back out into the world.
Below are two templates for labyrinths (from the Labyrinth Society) that you may copy and use as a finger labyrinth or as a pattern for creating your own labyrinth from clay or other materials.
Chartres style labyrinth, 11-circuit: https://zdi1.zd-cms.com/cms/res/files/382/ChartresLabyrinth.pdf
Classical Labyrinth, 7 circuit: https://zdi1.zd-cms.com/cms/res/files/382/ClassicalLabyrinth.pdf
Drawing your own labyrinth from a “seed pattern” is simple and fun, and can also be meditative. I encourage you to try it. Afterward you may decorate it if you wish - or leave it plain. Here is a brief YouTube video showing that process and some suggestions for using a finger labyrinth when finished. https://youtu.be/R1s6u4c6wWM.
Walking a Labyrinth: Now that the weather is warming, you might like to walk an outdoor labyrinth. Here are few I know:
1) Many of you know and love the small labyrinth at the Jesuit Center in Wernersville, located near the day-use parking lot.
2) In the Philadelphia suburbs:
One of my favorite labyrinths is this lovely outdoor labyrinth at
St. Thomas Episcopal:
Bethlehem Pike and Camp Hill Rd.,
Fort Washington.
There is also a small outdoor labyrinth at the Valley Friends Meeting, 1121 Old Eagle School Rd, Wayne, PA 19087 (very close to King of Prussia).
3) In Lancaster, I know of two outdoor labyrinths -- at St. Thomas Episcopal, 301 St. Thomas Road, and St. John's Episcopal at 321 W. Chestnut St.
This is a link to the World-Wide Labyrinth Locator for other Pennsylvania labyrinths:
(Please share any other labyrinths you have walked and loved in the comments below..)
Blessing
May you find and follow
the rhythms that bring life.
May you let go of the patterns
that confine and constrain.
May your turning and returning
trace pathways of peace,
and each step you take
make a life-giving way.
(Jan Richardson)
Blessings dear friends, as we continue our journey through Lent. Let us move slowly, taking one step at a time, opening the best we are able to the life-giving breath of God.
Closing music: Learning to Sit with Unknowing: Carrie Newcomer (Album: Point of Arrival)
Sources:
Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening (San Francisco, Conari Press, 2011), p. 51
Jan Richardson, In the Sanctuary of Women (Nashville, Upper Room Books, 2010), p. 247.
Thank you for the prompt to walk a labyrinth. I did so, and it was a gentle invitation to explore interior movements in this season of Lent. In my labyrinth walk I was moved by the structure (rocks) it holds for inner exploration, just as the season of Lent holds a space each year. Read some in Lauren Artress' book Walking a Sacred Path and love that book so much. In the book she mentions how in the Chartes labyrinth one turns to the center 13 times. 💖