Pilgrimage to Our Lady of Grace: Hospitality, the sequel

Since it never got beyond the 20’s and there were snow flurries all day, the labyrinth did not get walked to ponder hospitality yesterday. God provided another prayer walk of reflection.

When I arrived at my morning session after not attending Eucharist, the two Sisters who were teaching were talking about the inspiring homily given by Sister Mary Luke. Oh no.

Sister Mary Luke is the Sister to whom I am closest. We have much history over the years since she visioned and began Women Touched by Grace of which I have been part since 2003. We women clergy have called her our priest, and she has a stole that is created from fabric given by each of us in the first WTBG class.

Not only had I missed Holy Communion, I had missed hearing the words of my sister and priest.

When I saw her later in the day, I told her of my disappointment and of my struggles with being welcome at the Roman Mass. She reminded me what she had been telling us Protestant women clergy since she met us–that we were very welcome at Christ’s Table always at Our Lady of Grace. In fact, I recalled that the very first time I ever experienced a woman (Episcopal) Bishop presiding at Eucharist was in the Chapel of Our Lady of Grace eleven years ago at the first Women Touched by Grace communion service.

Today after Morning Praise I stayed for Mass. Before the liturgy again, I heard a whirring sound as a shade descended over a large window above the door. This is the first day this week that we have seen the sun, and the sunlight streaming through the large window over the Chapel’s open doors was blinding dear Father Matthias.

And then we rose for the Gathering Hymn. A hymn which I know by heart because it is in the Episcopal Hymnal. It was written by a member of The Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in Houston, my home, and the tune is called…..Houston. The hymn was I want to walk as a Child of the Light. I was welcome. I was home.

When we sang the Sanctus, the hymn before the Eucharist that connects us with the angels and all who sing praises to God in heaven, it was the same Sanctus, Land of Rest, that we sing at my home at St. Mary’s. I am welcome. I am home.

As Father Matthias continued the words of the Eucharistic Prayer, he prayed words about unity and communion and for all clergy and for all faithful people. To God I am always welcome. To God I am always home.

After the dismissal, I sat in silence in the chapel. I heard the whirring sound again. Sister Marie Therese was raising the screen. The sunlight poured in.

Pilgrimage to Indiana: Benedictine Hospitalty

Although those following the Rule of St. Benedict keep vows of conversion, stability, and obedience, central to the Rule is hospitality. Over and over the little Rule teaches from one perspective and yet another that we treat all as Christ.

I’ve had much to ponder about hospitality. In the parish where I serve, we’ve been having struggles (or perhaps I’ve been having struggles as the Rector) with what treating all as Christ means, particularly with those who are a step different from us. Elders with serious issues of aging, folks in emotional distress, people who see the Christian journey from unique perspectives…..hmmm, I suppose that includes almost all of us. What does it truly, truly mean to live my everyday life loving, really and truly loving, my neighbor?

I write that as the Holy Eucharist is being celebrated in the Monastery Chapel. The Prioress, who is the leader of the Monastery, not the priest, has said that we who are not Roman Catholic may come to Christ’s Table. Yet, we Protestants know that this is contrary to the teaching of the Roman Church. So every time there is Mass, I struggle: do I come or do I stay away?

Yesterday, I knew that my heart required the feeding of that Holy Bread and Wine, and so I stayed for the meal. This day, pondering Hospitality, I prayed the morning office in community, and then left with most of the other Protestant Oblates.

I’ll walk the labyrinth later today and continue to pray. I know that whatever God reveals, it will start with my own heart loving others as much as I love God.

Pilgrimage to Indiana: Oblate Retreat

I have followed the Rule of St. Benedict for several years. A few years ago I made a formal commitment to keeping the Rule by becoming an Oblate of Our Lady of Grace Monastery in Beech Grove, Indiana. I had looked for a Monastery nearer my home with which to be associated, but as God would have it, this place of community, an easy two hour flight from an airport thirty minutes from the Rectory, is the place where I have made vows of stability, conversion, and obedience.

Each year the Oblates who are unable to come to the monthly meetings are invited to return for a week “intensive”. We live in community at the Benedict Inn, worship three to four times each day with the Sisters, and have classes each morning and evening. Evenings are spent in fellowship with the Sisters, the other Oblates, and Inquirers who are discerning if they are called to make vows to follow the Rule.

I missed the first session in order to attend Vestry at St. Mary’s Monday night. My plane did arrive in time to pray Noonday Prayers with the Sisters. I’ve worshipped in that chapel hundreds of times, and it is a place of great joy to sink into their sacred rhythm of prayer, song, the Psalms, a brief reading from Scripture, silence, and blessing.

At Evening Worship we were invited to renew our vows of Oblation. Signing a brief statement of intent, prayer by the Prioress, an oral declaration, and a blessing from the Sisters–simply, but deeply felt, I promised to make the Rule of St. Benedict part of my personal Rule of Life for the year ahead.

Of course, in a community that values a balanced life, after a day of work, prayer, and study, it was time for recreation. Tables filled with Sisters and Oblates and Inquirers, we played games, ate pumpkin pie, and drank mulled cider. No one knows how to laugh and have fun more than the Sisters.

Our day compete, with a night of rest ahead, we prayed Compline.

Guide us waking, O Lord, and guard us asleeping, that awake and asleep we may watch with Christ.

Pilgrimage to Iona: My pearls of life prayer

I wrote about the Pearls of Life prayer beads in an earlier post and how I’ve been praying with them as a place to center in prayer. During my pilgrimage to Iona, the landscape of my travels came to represent those beads of prayer. I share them with you.

The God Pearl