Throughout the first few weeks of this New Year, our church staff have been contemplating in various ways things we want to leave behind, and things we want to make more space for. This was part of our inspiration for sharing Star Words with the congregation - a word we can use to invite something new into our lives through the coming year. As I've been thinking about this practice of making space in my own life, I came across the following prayer by Neil Douglas-Klotz. It's a reflection on the third line of the Lord's Prayer, "Hallowed be Thy Name."
Douglas-Klotz tells us that in saying 'hallowed be thy name', we are "clearing space for the name to live." We are letting go of that which binds us, distracts us, inflates our ego, and we are inviting the Name of the Universe to dwell within us. As we go through our days, may we continually find new ways to clear space for the Name to live in our hearts.
Focus your light within us - make it useful:
as the rays of a beacon
show the way.
Help us let go, clear the space inside
of busy forgetfulness: so the
Name comes to live.
Your name, your sound can move us
if we tune our hearts as instruments
for its tone.
Hear the one Sound that created all others,
in this way the Name is hallowed
in silence.
In peace the Name resides:
a "room of one's own," a holy of holies
open, giving light, to all.
We all look elsewhere for this light-
it draws us out of ourselves - but the Name
always lives within.
Focus your light within us - make it useful!
