She’s baaack…
Yes, I’ve just finished a tremendously consoling retreat, after a very consoling Chapter of Elections. Life is good!
I thought in my first post after retreat, I’d share with you an image that my retreat director, Sr. P., mentioned to me during one of our sessions. I looked up this quote from Thomas Merton’s “Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander” and thought I’d offer it as a starting point for any sharing we might want to do with each other.
At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or spark which belongs entirely to God, which is never at our disposal, from which God disposes our lives, which is inaccessible to the fantasies of our own mind or the brutalities of our own will. This little point of nothingness and of absolute poverty is the pure glory of God in us. It is, so to speak, God’s name written in us…It is like a pure diamond, blazing with the invisible light of heaven. It is in everybody, and if we could see it we would see these billions of points of light coming together in the face and blaze of a sun that would make all the darkness and cruelty of life vanish completely.
So, for me, this image is so powerful, because for me, practices such as daily prayer, annual retreat, faith sharing with others on the journey, etc, are about tending to this spark in the deepest and truest place in me. In the stresses and anxieties of everyday living, it is so easy to lose touch with this source of joy without consciously paying attention. What is hopeful to me is that many people I know have tasted this deep communion with God and do the best they can to be faithful to nurturing that spark of life in themselves and others.
I wonder what the world would be like if everyone found and tended that “virgin point” in their souls and recognized it in the others with whom they share life?
Wow, Sandy, what a truly powerful quote! Much food for thought there … and something to lift our hearts to our Beloved.
Somehow it makes me feel very small and very big all at the same time!
Thank you so much for sharing. It reminds me of something I read in “Eat. Pray. Love.” which also created that sense of awe if you interpret it from a God perspective:
“My thoughts turn to something I read once, something the Zen Buddhists believe. They say that an oak tree is brought into creation by two forces at the same time. Obviously, there is the acorn from which it all begins, the seed which holds all the promise and potential, which grows into the tree. Everybody can see that. But only a few can recognize that there is another force operating here as well ~ the future tree itself, which wants so badly to exist that it pulls the acorn into being, drawing the seedling forth with longing out of the void, guiding the evolution from nothingness to maturity. In this respect, say the Zens, it is the oak tree that creates the very acorn from which it was born.”
How wonderful and weird that this nothingness is where God’s greatness dwells, that He fits into such inside-out space … and that He draws us into being, together with our heavenly selves, singing over us and encouraging us to grow, like oak trees.
Wow.
Thanks, Pippa, for that wonderful image, and for nurturing that spark/acorn inside yourself! Your blog is truly an oasis in the wider blogosphere!
Sandy, this may not be for publishing —
I thank you for this Merton quote. It is beautifully inspiring and centering.
It is odd you know because some thirty years ago I had an experience, after some time doing yoga, where I felt for a few moments that I was just a tiny circle of light humming among millions of such little tiny circles of lights, all of us making a huge river of light flowing throughout a boundless darkness.
I realized that if this little circle of light was me, all the other little circles had to be people like me. I sensed that we were all part of ‘God’. Each of us was humming a different note and all these notes together were making a beautiful music.
What came to me then was that we were all brothers and sisters. This very brief experience changed my life and for years after that I tried to conjure it up again — without success.
Other experiences did come, but not that one of harmony, uniqueness and togetherness.
I will print out your quote and spend time with it at night before I go to sleep.
Thanks again 🙂
Thank you for sharing that powerful quote! Right now i’m supposed to be working with a nature theme…..hmm….think I could stretch the quote??? 🙂 Ah…I could….unity! 😉 And light is part of nature. Don’t ya just love it when you think you’re going in one direction and God takes you a gazillion others????
Claire, thanks! I think that what makes the image so powerful is that it is so immediately recognizable to any who have had such a direct experience of this unity, this communion of all of creation. It is pure gift, which is why I cannot conjure it up on my own… So glad that you have been given this experience as a touchstone in your own journey.
Kelly, did you read Pippa’s comment? She had a parallel to share with a more direct connection to nature. And yes, it is amazing how sometimes God presents so many life-giving possibilities to me all at once. It’s kind of like being at a huge al-you-can-eat buffet – hard to choose a reasonable amount to eat when everything is so good!
Our Loving Lord definetly sends us rich faire…sometimes too much to take in at one time!