Sunday, May 06, 2007

Sacred Space

Sacred Space is a place of prayer maintained by the Irish Jesuits. One can go through the various stages of meditation at whatever pace one prefers. I go there to quiet my soul. Life gets so incredibly hectic and here is a place of rest. At the beginning of each week there is a new reflection to think about before entering the prayer.

"In one of the gospel parables, the rich man is mulling over his treasures, and plans to build even bigger barns to store all his crops. He relishes his security: My soul, you have plenty of good things laid by for many years to come. Jesus reflects: A man’s life is not made secure by what he owns. As we grow quiet in prayer, our hearts can be invaded in the same way by false securities. In the measure that my heart is in past treasures, I am fossilised and dead, for life is only in the present. So to each of these past treasures I am grateful yet I say goodbye, explaining that, grateful though I am that it came into my life, it must move out, or my heart will never learn to love the present."

How true. It is so hard to balance the holding on and letting go. To treasure our lives by holding with an open hand, never grasping and always being willing to let go is not an easy feat for us humans to have within our feeble hearts. We long for solid ground underneath us, sometimes even if that ground is a pile of rubble or a complete illusion. Help me Lord to know that my only security and my only constant in this life is You and help me to be at peace with that truth.

No comments: