Sunday, October 8, 2006

My dearest God,

I had just attended the Vesper Service, the holy water dripping down the side of my face. The priest offering us up to God for the night, he had sprinkled each one as we softly bowed before the altar.

The sun had set since we entered the desert chapel. In silence we left the sanctuary for the guesthouse where we would bed down for the night. There were only four of us visitors to the monastery. I walked out with the oncologist from Colorado. He and I were the last to leave.

That was when it happened! As I stepped foot on the stone path just outside the chapel entrance, I looked up and fear shot clear through my body. I had never seen anything like it in my life. The sky looked like it was falling, getting closer and closer to earth. I gasped. The physician stopped beside me. "What IS it?" I asked. "You've never seen the Milky Way before?" He replied. "That's THE Milky Way?" I responded. There were billions of twinkling lights in the sky, all seemingly carefully placed one by one. I circled around, wanting to take in the sight, the awesome loveliness of the skies, hidden from our view as we had walked earlier. I simply could not take it all in. The giant mass of swirling stars charmed me as I finished the walk to my desert home. As the doctor left me standing alone by my tiny room, I spoke to God. "I have never seen such radiance, such a magnificent display of extravagant beauty. Oh Lord, how magnificent, how awesome you are." Tears blended with holy water as I acknowledged the hidden grandeur of God, now revealed in all its splendor.

As the lantern lights were extinguished one by one, I was alone in the darkness beneath the majestic firmament. In utter and total silence I breathed in God and breathed out my prayers of adoration.

Hidden mysteries of God
seek j u s t the right moment
to reveal itself.
A child holding the hand
of God,
God opens heaven's secrets.
The awesomeness
of God's sacred design
is beyond belief.
Holy, it cries out,
holy is the Lord.
And belief is no longer
a dry set of doctrine,
words we memorize
and parrot back.
It is divine mystery,
an act of love so noble and grand
that my knees buckle
and collapse to the ground
in humility, praise, and adoration.
My eyes have seen the glory of the Lord
and I want nothing more
than to remain with God forevermore.

Eternally yours, Andrea