A Pilgrimage into Silence and Beyond: Journey Home

at the Abbey, 

in the dark, 

I would rise to chant with the monks for Vigils at 6 am.  The sun took that time to rise.  Before we finished our readings back and forth, one side to another and all for God ... I could see the snow falling.

This morning we read Psalm 22:14 and these words shimmered off the page and into my heart:

"I am poured out like water ..."

each word echoing within me 

as I readied myself for the journey home.

O yes, my heart is singing

I AM poured out like water!

I AM coming home!

waiting to leave, writing in my journal ... 

i am poured out like water from an earthen vessel   cracked in all the right places and so many wrong places.  Weeping and seeping with turbulent emotions raging like the Pecos River so close.  Receiving God's love -- love like living water and so pours forth the love of God into the world.  And how can that love pour forth without the cracks?  Without each carefully crafted crack the water would lay dormant in its container, stagnant, smelly ... ugliness drifting from within, emerging from the outer edge of consciousness.  so I will rejoice in each new crack in the vessel of clay that I am.  O God, I am the raging river and you are my shoreline, guiding me, holding me, loving me.  I marvel at your presence and your love poured upon my grief.  Yes!  Yes!  Yes!  Pour forth your healing grace and love, make your presence known to all who grieve today and every day, to all who are broken, to all who are healing.  Pour on!  Amen!

A blessing for the Journey Home

May your trails be crooked, winding,
lonesome, dangerous,
leading to the most amazing view.
May your mountains rise
into and above the clouds.
~Edward Abbey

  

Vaya
Con Dios!


Go
with God!

To begin the journey from the beginning, take this link:

A Pilgrimage into Silence and Beyond 

 

If I were ...

If I were an olive, I'd definitely be an acquired taste!  
There is a hardness that has been touched and moved around and pulled out from within me ... for the most part and on more days than not just now ... leaving a gaping hole right through the center of me for the Spirit of Love to pour God's Self into and to change and to move through.  I think maybe I'm seeking the "soft" red pimento of LOVE to fill my inner space ... perhaps that IS what moderates the taste ... 

Come moderate me, Sweet Mother God.  Amen.

And yet ... as I continue to contemplate this olive that is me so interesting, I am noticing that I originally chose a very commercially processed image for myself.  However, as I continue to sit with this image of the olive, I suddenly remember the ancient healing properties of the olive ... pressed into oil that pours upon the body and into the soul.   Gently I feel the intimacy of being so lovingly massaged and molded ... and I notice that I am no longer empty but filled to overflowing ... with love and light.  

"Command the people of Israel to bring you pure oil of pressed olives  for the light, to keep the lamps burning continually."  Exodus 27:20

Spirit of Hope, massage me and mold me into a vessel of Light and Healing.  Amen.

Take a moment to journal and create ... 
Let you imagination go and try it!  
Close your eyes, take a deep breath, "if I were ..."
Journal as long as it takes to go where you need to go.
Comment and share your ponderings.