“It [the collective unconscious] is the place where archetypes emerge – those symbols and experiences that appear across time and cultures. The stories of our ancestors are woven into the fabric of our very being.”
— Christine Valters Paintner, PhD,Sacred Seasons: A Yearlong Journey through the Celtic Wheel of the Year – A Self-Study Online Retreat
How does your ancestral heritage wave its wisdom through your being? How might you open your inner ears to hear whisperings from the past in the present?
Yesterday I took part in a moving retreat Writing with the Ancestors through Abbey of the Arts. Parts of it were difficult as Denise and I continue to process the deaths of our mothers (Shirley and Jeanne) and the death of her dad (Roland) and our dear friend and Denise’s former mother-in-law (Betty). I wrote this piece for our mothers.
We Remember Them
We remember them in the song of the cardinals
We remember them in the bright flash of red
We remember them in the turning of the maple leaf
We remember them as we savor a cup of tea
We remember them when we see a favorite card or board game
We remember them when we set the table with their place settings
We remember them with love
I wrote this piece about Thomas Merton. While not an ancestor in the genealogical sense, he is very much a spiritual companion for me.
For the Dead – Thomas Merton
I imagine sitting on the front porch of your hermitage
Talking and listening
Embracing moments of silence
Letting the song of the birds touch my heart
I imagine your laughter and the twinkle in your eyes
We both sip a glass of bourbon
Noting that the distillery inspired a photograph
The sun is beginning to fade
Darkness prepares to descend
Yet Sister Moon will guide my way back
I see you smiling in the twilight as you wave farewell
I hear your invitation to visit again
I will
On this All Hallows’ Eve as the veil between this world and the next is thin, I know that I will continue to feel their presence along with the presence of so many others as I continue this journey through All Saints and All Souls days.
The sun has set and the Vesper Lights flicker and glow
Today was a day of rest and recovery for my sweetheart following her flu shot and COVID booster
In the middle of the day, we attended an Abbey of the Arts retreat
Reflecting on and writing about our ancestors
Through prayer, contemplation, song, and writing we explored their gifts to us
It was at times very emotional as we remembered them by name
Now as my eyelids grow heavy
I lift this humble prayer to you
Dona Nobis Pacem
Grant Us Peace
A wee prayer from the heart of your Padre…
“A voice from the dark called out,
The poets must give us
imagination of peace, to oust the intense, familiar
imagination of disaster. Peace, not only
the absence of war.”
—Denise Levertov
“Samhain marks one of the two great doorways of the Celtic year. The Celts divided the year into two seasons: the season of light and the season of dark . . . . In the silence of darkness comes the whisperings of new beginnings.”
— Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, Sacred Seasons: A Yearlong Journey through the Celtic Wheel of the Year – A Self-Study Online Retreat
“The self creates the world by means of projection. Much of the world’s violence, for example, is an acting out of the violence we find within ourselves, an effort to get rid of our inner demons by projecting them ‘out there.’ We help create the outward enemy to distract us from the inward enemy who always threatens to overcome us.”—Parker Palmer
Verse of the day
So make your minds ready for action, and be sober. Put your hope in nothing but the grace that will be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.
– 1 Peter 1:13
Voice of the day
Jesus rejected hatred because he saw that hatred meant death to the mind, death to the spirit, and death to communion with his Father. He affirmed life; and hatred was the great denial.
– Howard Thurman, Jesus and the Disinherited (1949)
Prayer of the day May our minds and spirits be filled as we commune with you. Reveal to us the path ahead.
The sun has set and the Vesper Lights flicker and glow
Today has been a wonderful day
Work and ministry went very well
My sweetheart is home with HRH and me
It is the beginning of our weekend together
An excellent dinner that my sweetheart made and good wine
Snuggling on the couch
Enjoying one of our favorite BritBox show, “Death in Paradise”
For such relaxing and wonderful evenings I thank you, Lord
Now as my eyelids grow heavy
I lift this humble prayer to you
Dona Nobis Pacem
Grant Us Peace
A wee prayer from the heart of your Padre…
Our dear friends Christine Sine and Lilly Lewin are offering a creative Advent retreat which draws inspiration from Christine’s book, The Gift of Wonder. The Retreat will be Saturday, November 20th via Zoom. Denise and I participated in an earlier retreat that they offered and found much fun and inspiration as we explored the gifts of wonder and awe which we all too often overlook.
For further information and to sign up for the retreat, click on this link: https://godspacelight.com/shop/walking-in-wonder-through-advent-virtual-retreat/.
“No season of the year is more filled with wonder than that of Advent
and Christmas. The story turns our understanding of the world upside
down. From the stunning revelation that our creator God plans to be
born into history as the son of an unwed peasant, until Jesus arrives
in the tiny town of Bethlehem and is surrounded by the lowly
shepherds, we are inspired.
Yet we live in an awe deprived world and are so familiar with the story
that its wonder and glory often elude us” Christine Sine
Life can often times be challenging. I know that many times in my own life, there is a temptation when I mess up to move to another course of action. When I was facing a dark night of the soul late in my Air Force Chaplain career I thought that changing jobs would be the answer. God thought otherwise and called me back to ministry. This time it was a calling to ministry after the Air Force and back in the parish. These words of Thomas Merton speak to me of the wisdom of God and my/our calling to actually listen when the Spirit speaks.
The thing to do, when you have made a mistake, is not to give up doing what you were doing and start something altogether new, but to start over again with the thing you began badly and try, for the love of God, to do it well. — Entering the Silence: The Journals of Thomas Merton, vol 2 – October 7, 1949,
