Prayer and Tradition

I had a very thought provoking conversation today with one of my wisest confidantes:) I've been deep in thought about prayer ever since ... and praying along the way. I've been thinking about the habit of my little family to say the meal blessing that my husband grew up with in his large Catholic family: Bless us, O Lord, in these thy gifts that we are about to receive from thy bounty through Christ our Lord. Amen. I think some people might find fault with repetition in prayer, but I am blessed by the gentle comfort of these well-worn words. In their simplicity, they give me the space to rest in a deep place of thanksgiving. Remember when Jesus looked toward heaven, blessed some bread and a few fish ... there was such an abundance that a multitude of people were fed. (Luke 9:16) I remember my beautiful little family growing up together saying these words ... It was a regular daily act of thanksgiving and family worship. Somehow it is as if all of the generations of my husband's family are all there with us ... the communion of saints ... and we are blessed to be wrapped in the heart of God.

What lies beyond the horizon?

Always looking beyond the horizon ... I seem to be. I do so want to know and know and know ... what lies ahead? And yet I hear Isaiah's words (43:1) lingering somewhere in the darkness of my unknowing "Fear not for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name. You are mine." For some odd reason these words comfort me. They whisper gently to me a sense that I am a part of something beyond the horizon of my own self, something ethereal and illusive. Ah ... the more I know God the more I know I don't know ... God! Perhaps this is the darkness that the author of The Cloud of Unknowing speaks.

"Do not suppose that because I have spoken of darkness and of a cloud I have in mind the clouds you see in an overcast sky or the darkness of your house when your candle fails…. When I speak of darkness, I mean the absence of knowledge. If you are unable to understand something or if you have forgotten it, are you not in the dark as regards this thing? You cannot see it with your mind's eye. Well, in the same way, I have not said "cloud," but cloud of unknowing. For it is a darkness of unknowing that lies between you and your God."

from The Cloud of Unknowing

Perhaps the darkness of unknowing lies between us or perhaps darkness, as painful as it may often be, is simply the place I lie within my God ... trusting in the One to whom I belong.

O Darkness my Love
I’m overwhelmed by my pain
Wrapped in its grip … Bound by its fingers
I search for the light … That simply won’t shine within me

O Darkness my Love
You’ll never leave me … Wrap me and stab me
And love me and keep me
I love you … I hate you

O Darkness my Love
You spin me round … You turn me upside down
Won’t you swallow my pain … And dance with me now

O Darkness my Love
In the depths of my soul I wait ... Star light, star bright
Come to my rescue … And shine the way out

But Darkness my Love
You won’t let me go … You’re all that I know
In the depths of my soul

O Darkness my Love
I long for freedom …It eludes me – You laugh!
For you know I’ll never leave … Your warm embrace

My Darkness my Love

© 2009 Cindy Foster Serio

the dream that won't let go

Have you ever had a dream that just wouldn't let you go? I think this kind of dream is a calling. Elusively it comes, in bits and pieces, sometimes gently and sometimes violently. I think this is just the way a life well-lived unfolds. Finally perhaps the bits and pieces fall into a place called beauty.

My dream and my calling is Mosaic Spiritual Formation Ministry ... Creating Beauty from the Broken Pieces of Life. Check out my website at http://mosaicspiritualformationministry.org