June 18, 2020
Dear Grace Church Community,
This letter will reach you as I am on retreat at a monastery in Connecticut. In these times, as in every time, it is necessary to make a space to go away and pray. I am grateful for this opportunity and know that it will be good for my soul as well as my mind and body.
While I think about going on this retreat, I thought I would offer you some soul nourishment—some soul care. We began this time of unknowing 13 weeks ago. We thought for a few days that it would only last a few weeks—a month at most. But now it is starting to become clear that this will be our way of being for the foreseeable future. The virus knows us well and takes advantage of our need to be together, to hug and touch, to share laughter and tears, to be together in community and hold each other close as we try to live in a space that is completely new.
How are you doing? How are you spending your days? How can this community be with you, though apart, so that you will remember that you are loved and that you are not alone? Each of us is only a phone call away and the sound of each other’s voice can raise our spirits as it opens our minds and hearts.
You don’t need a checklist. You may already feel overwhelmed, not by busyness, but by feeling disoriented and disconnected from life. But maybe one of these offerings will be something you need for yourself or someone you love.
Begin with
gratitude. In this time it can seem nonsensical that gratitude will be at the top of soul care. But gratitude is essential for resilience, for strengthening our immune system, and reminding us that even in uncertain times, goodness is present. A practice of gratitude can begin our day, close our day, or both. It can be written down. It can be offered up in prayer. It can be shared with someone by phone or mail or email. Just remembering those people and those experiences that give us life, joy, and hope helps us “lift up our heart” as we say in our prayers. “We lift them up to God” who is the source of goodness and life and love.
Establish a spiritual practice of
being in nature. Even a couple of minutes outdoors will remind you of the beauty and the greatness of this world. Staying indoors we can concentrate on all that we “should be doing” or all “that needs to be done.” While these may be true, what is also true is that there is something just outside your door or window that can take your breath away and help you be a part of awe and wonder. It can literally restore your day. If you are able, taking a walk outdoors can be a contemplative practice. Following the way of Lectio Divina, you can first
Read what is around you. Stand still and just be awake and aware of your surroundings. Open yourself to what God is presenting to you right now. Then
Notice what captures your attention—a bird, a flower, a beautiful leaf, a cloud…
Pray giving thanks to God and sharing with God what you are seeing and feeling. Then
Rest in what God has given you to notice and take in to your life. This practice can be done outdoors in the sunshine or by looking out your window.
Reach out to someone. You may start by making a list of people you would like to visit. Then set yourself an opportunity for making a call or writing a note or sending an email. Our young people are teaching us that we can stay a part of each other’s lives even when we must be physically separated. My middle son has established a movie group with friends from across the country and around the world. He is teaching me that we can still be together, we can still have good conversation, we can still learn and be with each other, even in a time when a pandemic has taught us that to love each other, we must stay apart.
Please let me or someone in our community know how you are doing. The building may be closed, but the church is wide open. May you know the inspiring love of God in your life this day.
May the peace that surpasses all understanding hold you and keep you,
Janet
My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself,
and the fact that I think I am following your will
does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that, if I do this,
You will lead me by the right road,
though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore I will trust you always
though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
----Thomas Merton. It is from
Thoughts in Solitude
(1958).
