Pathway into Lent

Pathway into Lent

We have made this far into the Lenten Season.  It is now March.  Oh, and by the way, March is named after Mars, the Roman god of war. March was the first month in the original Roman calendar. Along with January, May, and June, March is one of several months named after a god.  Now, back to Lent and what I would like to share with you today.

I was raised Catholic, attended parochial school through high school, before heading off to USC.  I was just where I needed to be, spiritually.  My sister first led me to question some of the rules set down by the Church.  One rule, which riled me, was that we could not eat meat on Friday.  This was particularly stinging because many of my classmates, whose parents were stationed at Fort Jackson, were able to eat meat on Fridays.  This made no sense to me.  If something is so important as to have to confess it as a sin it should not be arbitrary.  It should be across the board, the same for everyone.  Well, at least, that was the mindset of a twelve year old girl.  Yet, it was the first of many questions, for me.  However, I did not question the lives of the saints.  Now I see, with clarity, I was always in love with the mysticism of Catholicism but pushed back on many of the rules set in place.  I knew there had to be a reason, a source, for the rules, which would make sense, but I do not remember ever finding the source, except that they were rules made by another human being.  All this is laying the groundwork to say that many years later, when Michael and I met, in our forties, I had been disillusioned with The Church, and the scandals, and the seemingly empty rules, but not with the saints, not with the mystical aspects of the Church.  Fast forward… Michael and I were led out of the city up into the high mountains of Western North Carolina to establish a place of peace, where individuals and couples could come, be in nature, and reconnect with God, on a personal basis.  So, we founded, and became the operators of, The Quiet Place.  This is when major events opened my heart, brought my soul to song, and invigorated my spirit.  We were actively seeking God, in nature, in the great cathedrals of towering pines, in the song of the waterfalls.  As we began to seek through daily prayer and meditation, each morning and night, the doors opened with visions and messages.  Sometimes they were not aligned with what we had been taught as children.  But the visions and messages were not the only events leading us into something new.  As we walked and talked with the trees, as we sat with, and listened to, the grasses, and flowers, bugs, and birds, our senses were heightened.  As we slipped our hands between the trunks of conjoined trees, we felt energy, powerful energy, moving, supporting, caressing, loving.  As we sat on the benches, at the back waterfall, the swaying of the trees, and the passing deer brought messages.  Everywhere we looked messages were there, present, with us.  It was God, speaking to us, and we were not sitting in the pews of a church.  We were sinking ever deeper into Mother Earth.  We were not walking in nature, we were one with nature, and this brought even more messages, downloads, if you will.  It was God.  That is the seeking, which led us to finding that it was all God.  Now, you might think, well of course, we all know that.  But at first it shook me to the core, because I had, set in my head, an imaginary picture of what God is.  And the bugs scurrying over the log had never been one of those images.  I was more willing to accept it, piece by peace, than I was ready to speak the truth, which when found, unfolded with awe.  I was disturbed.  Then I was in wonder.  Then our lives took a profound turn, which was reflected in how we welcomed retreat guests, in how we encouraged them to pray, in how we sent each person out to sit next to a tree, or on a rock to receive that which they were seeking.  It became real, seeking, finding, disturbing, awesome, truth.

Since that time there have been so many seeking journeys, each one unfolding in the same way.  It was disturbing to think of God as a bug, or a slug, or a mountain lion.  But it was also awesome, and wonderous, glorious, and transformative for us.

The reading I have chosen today is from Isaiah 32:18-20

The Reading

March 5, 2024

“My people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest.  Though hail flattens the forest and the city is leveled completely, how blessed you will be, sowing your seed by every stream, and letting your cattle and donkeys range free.”  Isaiah 32:18-20