Isn't this place something special? Amen!

In these days...
            our daily scriptures held up the importance of PLACE,
            made sacred by God's presence:
            ...the desert, the tent, the field..

In these days...
            of retreat, we became more aware of what we call
            "The everyday ordinary."

In these days...
           the desert, the tent, the field, and Saint Mary by-the-Sea graced us
           to open up, to breathe deeply, to pray ~
           and to receive the healing
           of God's artistic brush across our hearts.

In these days...
          God lead us to recommit to being vibrant "green" ~
          as luscious as the woods of NC or Germany.

In these days...
         those who lived justice and confronted injustice,
         served as a mirror to our yet-to-be converted shadowy side.

In color, and in black and white, God's image and likeness
         in the poor, reclaimed  us and demands once again
         our voice, our energetic action and our compassionate presence.

In these days...
        our leaders, Cathy, Helen, Jean Marie, Mary Catherine,
        Phyllis, Rose Mary, and John David, 
        chose their PLACE...
        in our deserts, in our tents, and in our fields.

If "a life can be defined in terms of PLACE"
        then Cathy, Helen, Jean Marie, Mary Catherine,
       Phyllis, Rose Mary, and John David
        intentionally pitched their tents and planted their field right beside us.
       We have no doubt about their compassionate presence.

In the days ahead...
        the grace of these sacred places will unfold and accompany us
       wherever we go...
       ...whether it be in a deep, dank tunnel, in the brilliance of light's spectrum,
       or at the shadowy thresholds of our in-betweeness.

In the days ahead...
       there are other PLACES that await the graces of this retreat.
       As we gather around these sacred Tables of Word and Sacrament
      we celebrate that our desert, our tent, our field, and this House of Prayer
      have re-defined us and now send us forth
      ...to be Doers and Makers of Hope.

Better yet, "why not become fire?"

 

~ Janis McQuade, SSJ

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